Atlantis lands successfully
Atlantis has been in space for almost 12 days
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Thursday, 21, Sep 2006 01:27
Space shuttle Atlantis landed successfully this morning after a series of minor setbacks.
It touched down at 06:21 EDT (11:21 BST) at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre after nearly 12 days in space.
Atlantis was due to land yesterday morning, but Nasa officials recommended that it should spend another 24 hours in space so that it could monitor the shuttle's heat shield and ensure that an unidentified object that was seen flying in close proximity to the shuttle had not caused any damage.
Bad weather including thunderstorms and strong winds also made yesterday's landing impossible.
During the mission, the six-member crew carried out three spacewalks to make repairs and updates to the International Space Station (ISS).
Solar panels were added to the orbiting outpost which will enable it to double the amount of energy that it generates from the Sun.
Atlantis has now made a total of 27 shuttle flights and six missions to the ISS.
As Atlantis made its way back to the US from the station, Russia's Expedition 14 onboard the TMA spacecraft successfully docked there early on Wednesday morning for a ten-day mission.