CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.—Space shuttle Atlantis landed at its Florida home port on Wednesday after a mission that delivered Europe's first permanent space lab to orbit, clearing the way for the U.S. military to shoot down a dead spy satellite.
The shuttle touched down at 9:07 a.m. EST (1407 GMT) at the Kennedy Space Center, where NASA already has another shuttle at the launch pad for a March 11 flight to continue assembling the International Space Station.
Flying through clear skies, Atlantis commander Stephen Frick circled high over the spaceport to lose speed, then nosed the 100-tonne spaceplane onto a three-mile (4.8 km)-long, canal-lined runway just a few miles (km) west of where the shuttle blasted off 13 days ago.
"Welcome home," astronaut Jim Dutton radioed to the crew from Mission Control in Houston. "Congrats on delivering Columbus (space lab) to its new world."
Atlantis' return freed the U.S. Navy to fire a missile at the falling spy satellite, which is loaded with toxic rocket propellant.
The shuttle needed to land before the military operation to avoid flying through satellite wreckage as it returned to Earth and risk heat shield damage similar to what triggered shuttle Columbia's destruction in 2003.
The Pentagon had intended to make an attempt as early as Wednesday night. But an official said rough seas in the Pacific Ocean would probably prevent a Navy ship from launching the missile on Wednesday.
The military says the fuel could pose a hazard to populated areas and that destroying the satellite just before it re-enters Earth's atmosphere increases the chance that debris will fall harmlessly into the ocean. The satellite was launched in December 2006 and failed shortly after reaching orbit.
The space station, which orbits more than 200 miles (320 km) above the planet, would not be endangered by the debris, which is expected to be pulled into Earth's atmosphere and incinerated within a few days after the craft is destroyed.
The operation also is not expected to impede NASA's plans to return to the station with shuttle Endeavour next month to install the first piece of Japan's three-part Kibo laboratory complex.
Setting Up Module
The Atlantis crew ferried the long-delayed, $1.9 billion European laboratory to the space station and left French astronaut Leopold Eyharts in charge of setting it up.
"This was just an unbelievably super mission for us," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space flight, told reporters after the shuttle's landing.
Eyharts replaced returning space station flight engineer Dan Tani, whose planned two-month mission was extended to four months after fuel sensor glitches spurred NASA to reschedule Atlantis' launch to February from December.
The astronauts conducted three spacewalks during their nine-day stay at the outpost to hook up the lab, attach science experiments to its outer hull and work on the station's cooling system.
German astronaut Hans Schlegel was sidelined from the first spacewalk by an undisclosed medical condition, but he recovered to join lead spacewalker Rex Walheim for the second outing. Stanley Love, who replaced Schlegel on the first spacewalk, partnered with Walheim for the final one.
NASA hopes to fly five more of its remaining 12 missions this year, including a late summer servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope, before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. Eleven flights are needed to complete construction and resupply of the $100 billion space station.
"We need to stay vigilant," Gerstenmaier said. "Just perform these flights one at a time."
Feeds