NASA waits for dry weather to bring shuttle home
May 22, 2009
In this image provided by NASA, Space Shuttle Atlantis is backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth's atmosphere Wednesday, May 20, 2009. (AP Photo/NASA)
(AP) -- NASA is waiting for a break in Florida's rainy weather so the space shuttle Atlantis can return home on schedule.
NASA hopes to land Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center at 10 a.m. EDT Friday. They could try again at 11:39 a.m.
If no break in the rain comes, they could try again Saturday for Florida or land at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
But it costs about $1.8 million to land elsewhere and fly the shuttle piggyback on a jumbo jet back to Florida. Sunday's landing options include Florida, California and New Mexico.
In the shuttle's 11-day mission, spacewalking astronauts repaired and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope, adding at least five year of life to the observatory.
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May 20, 2009 |
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