Atlantis spacecraft landed safely

At 9:07 am local time 20-27 (14g07 GMT), the Atlantis space shuttle and 7-man crew landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida (USA), ending the journey. 8 million km long with the mission of supplying European research equipment to the International Space Station (ISS) lasting 13 days.

Earlier, the US Aerospace Aeronautics Center (NASA) wanted the Atlantis ship to return as soon as possible to "clear the way" for the US Navy to shoot down a spotted satellite. The plan to shoot down could take place as early as February 20 (local time) before the satellite, with a container of toxic fuel, could penetrate the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA allowed Atlantis to land after the test results of the latest laser images on the wings and nose of the ship showed no holes or cracks due to collisions with small meteorites.

In the coming mission, Atlantis will fly into space around the end of August 2008 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. This will also be NASA's last Hubble approach.