Welcome home, Atlantis!
Another nice thing about living in California is that we occasionally get visitors from space!
The space shuttle Atlantis landed today at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the 53rd time for a shuttle to land at Edwards. Rainy weather postponed a shuttle landing in Florida on Friday and Saturday. Atlantis could have held out until Monday, but NASA decided to land today in sunny California.
The shuttle touched down at 8:39 AM today at Edwards. Within seven to 10 days, Atlantis will be transported from California to Florida on the back of a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet.
Atlantis launched May 11 for a final repair visit to the Hubble Space Telescope. Astronauts conducted five spacewalks in what has been called the most ambitious space repair effort, ever!
The capabilities of the Hubble telescope will be improved by as much as 70 times by the instruments installed during the mission, and Hubble’s lifetime should be extended through at least 2014.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
You can view higher-resolution photos (*generally* 7-30 megabytes, compressed) at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. Apparel and other gifts decorated with some of our most popular photos can be ordered from the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Store on CafePress®. Both Shutterfly™ and CafePress® ship to most international locations worldwide! If you don’t see what you want or would like to receive an email when new photos are up on the site, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.
