Atlantis comes in for landing.
Click on image for full size
NASA

Atlantis Returns Home
News story originally written on October 7, 1997

Commander Jim Wetherbee and pilot Mike Bloomfield brought Atlantis home with a perfect landing Monday at 4:55 p.m. CDT. The shuttle touched down at Kennedy Space Center after having been delayed a day due to foul weather conditions.

The main goal of this shuttle mission was to relieve Michael Foale of his position aboard the space station Mir. David Wolf is now serving as NASA's long-duration astronaut on Mir. The joint shuttle and Mir crew also transferred hardware, science equipment, and water from the shuttle onto Mir.

Thick clouds enveloping Kennedy Space Center kept Foale in orbit about the Earth for a 145th day. But this only increased the astronaut's excitement for returning home. He will soon be united with his wife and two children, Jenna and Ian, ages 5 and 3. Foale anticipates being able to speak face-to-face with Ian, who learned to talk while his daddy was in space. He also awaits a change of diet. Foale's regular diet of freeze-dried space food will be replaced with piping-hot pizza and a lot of chocolate!

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Final Flight of Space Shuttle Atlantis

The space shuttle Atlantis completed its final scheduled flight when it touched down on at Kennedy Space Center on the morning of May 26, 2010. NASA is planning to retire the entire fleet of space shuttle...more

1999--A Year in Review...

It was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,...more

STS-95 Launch: "Let the wings of Discovery lift us on to the future."

The Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center at 2:19 p.m. EST, October 29th. The sky was clear and the weather was great as Discovery took 8 1/2 minutes to reach orbit for the Unitied...more

Moon Found Orbiting Asteroid

A moon was discovered orbiting the asteroid, Eugenia. This is only the second time in history that a satellite has been seen circling an asteroid. A special mirror allowed scientists to find the moon...more

U.S. is Fed Up with Russia

Will Russia ever put the service module for the International Space Station in space? NASA officials are demanding an answer from the Russian government. The necessary service module is currently waiting...more

More on Recent Coronal Mass Ejection

During a period of about two days in early May, 1998, the ACE spacecraft was immersed in plasma associated with a coronal mass ejection (CME). The SWICS instrument on ACE, which determines unambiguously...more

Mother Nature's Air Conditioning

J.S. Maini of the Canadian Forest Service has referred to forests as the "heart and lungs of the world." Forests reduce soil erosion, maintain water quality, contribute to atmospheric humidity and cloud...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA