Atlantis Lands Safely

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely in the pre-dawn darkness at the Kennedy Space Center. There were no problems reported. I what had to be an amazing sight, the astronauts in the International Space Station were able to watch the landing from above.

"Glad to be back. It was a great team effort. Assembly is off to a good start," said commander Brent Jett immediately after touchdown at Kennedy Space Center at 6:21 a.m. EDT.

From 220 miles above Earth, astronaut Jeff Williams watched from the space station, where Atlantis had departed on Sunday.

"Spectacular lightning flashes just below the orbiter," Williams said as the space shuttle slowed from traveling at 17,000 miles an hour and entered Earth's atmosphere about an hour before landing. "The glow of the orbiter itself is getting dimmer but the contrail is still pretty bright."

The landing 48 minutes before sunrise was a day later than planned because NASA ordered up more inspections of the spacecraft's delicate skin to make sure it was safe to come home. The fear was that a mysterious piece of debris spotted floating nearby on Tuesday might have hit the spacecraft. Astronauts later saw other debris.

"We've seen a new standard in NASA vigilance," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.

After numerous cameras took pictures above and below, some of them maneuvered robotically by the shuttle astronauts, NASA proclaimed the spacecraft damage-free.

The unplanned drama threatened to overshadow what had been a nearly flawless mission filled with strenuous spacewalks and rigorous robotics work that placed the international space station back on a path to completion after a 3 1/2-year hiatus.

NASA officials said their best guess was that the most worrisome object was a plastic filler placed in between thermal tiles which protect the shuttle from blasting heat. Four other pieces of debris, including a possible garbage bag, floated near the shuttle over the next day.

Atlantis' return avoided a near traffic jam at the space station, as a Russian Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the space station less than two days after Atlantis had departed.

It was the 21st landing in darkness of 114 successful landings.

There's no sign of any pictures on the NASA website of any pictures they may have taken from the ISS. I hope they got some and can get them out.