Atlantis Lands Safely to End Secret Mission

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE — The new space shuttle Atlantis glided out of orbit to a safe Mojave Desert landing today to end a clandestine maiden mission which deployed two military communications satellites under a tight news blackout.

Commander Karol J. Bobko, an Air Force colonel, guided the 100-ton space plane to a touchdown on a hard-packed sand runway at 10 a.m. after a four-day orbital shakedown cruise of the last of NASA’s four-craft shuttle fleet.

An hour earlier, Bobko had fired braking rockets high above the Indian Ocean to drop Atlantis out of orbit and start it on its descent.

Mission Control lifted its curtain of secrecy to announce the successful firing of the two rockets and to permit live television coverage of the landing.

Silence Broken

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration broke three days of silence on the mission Sunday to give a 24-hour notice of the planned landing.

The other crew members were Air Force Lt. Col. Ronald J. Grabe, pilot; Marine Maj. David C. Hilmers and Army Lt. Col. Robert C. Stewart, mission specialists, and Air Force Maj. William A. Pailes, payload specialist.

Mission Control said the astronauts had conducted a series of tests of systems aboard the new $1.1-billion spacecraft and said Atlantis had been “solid throughout the mission.”

The main purpose of Atlantis’ shakedown cruise was to launch two $100-million military satellites.

No Confirmation

Neither NASA nor the Department of Defense would confirm that the satellites had been deployed, but reliable sources said they had been sent to their planned orbits 22,300 miles above the Earth.

The two satellites were joined on a single rocket engine when they were ejected Thursday from Atlantis’ cargo bay, the sources said.

The rocket engine later fired and sent the satellites to high orbit, where they parted.