NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis Landing Begins

The Space Shuttle Atlantis has just fired its rockets to begin braking for its descent to Earth on Sunday, after being unable to land due to unfavorable weather conditions since Friday.

Atlantis will land on orbit 197 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 11:39AM with a deorbit burn performed at 10:24AM. The burn lasted three to four minutes and the Shuttle has already begun descending towards Edwards.

Everything looks good at this point. The Space Shuttle has been in space for 12 days and 20 hours up until this point. Everyone back home will finally be glad to see the crew after the two extra days in space and a marvelous repair job done by the crew of the Hubble Space Telescope.