Atlantis Crew Wraps Up Vexing Mission : Space: Astronauts shrug off satellite bungle as a hazard of trying to ‘put all our eggs in one basket.’ Florida rain could divert today’s landing.

The astronauts aboard the shuttle Atlantis packed up Friday after a vexing week in space in which they failed to accomplish their main goal: reeling out a satellite on 12 1/2 miles of tether.

“Unfortunately in the space exploration business, we have to put all our eggs in one basket sometimes and try to do it all,” shuttle pilot Andrew Allen said in a space-to-ground news conference.

He compared the trouble-plagued electrical Tethered Satellite experiment, which was a space first, to the trial flight of a fighter plane.

“You don’t go out on the first flight and do air combat and shoot missiles and drop bombs,” Allen said.

A jammed line forced the seven astronauts to reel in the satellite Wednesday from a distance of just 750 feet. Instead of generating the planned 5,000 volts of electricity, the tether yielded only 40 volts because of the short length.

“We are truly disappointed, not so much for ourselves . . . but for our scientists,” said astronaut Jeff Hoffman. “We still believe in the potentials of the Tethered Satellite system.”

NASA already has begun to impound records involving the $379-million system and is forming a team to investigate what went wrong.

Atlantis was scheduled to land at 4:39 a.m. PDT today at Kennedy Space Center. There was a possibility of rain, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said they would consider sending the shuttle to the backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The astronauts spent their last full day in orbit wrapping up atmospheric tests and stowing cabin equipment. Instruments in the open cargo bay measured the effects of atomic oxygen on materials being considered for use in NASA’s proposed space station Freedom.

The crew interrupted landing preparations to chat with reporters and take phone calls from government and space officials in Italy, Switzerland and Costa Rica. The crew includes Franco Malerba, the first Italian in space; Claude Nicollier, the first Swiss in space, and Franklin Chang-Diaz, who was born in Costa Rica and is now a U.S. citizen.

Malerba told Italy’s prime minister, Giuliano Amato, that the experiment validated the Tethered Satellite concept. The Italian Space Agency provided the satellite, which Malerba said performed well.

Shuttle commander Loren J. Shriver said he supported NASA’s decision to give up on the experiment, considering all of the trouble the crew was having. At one point, the tether went slack and the half-ton metal ball on the end of the cord swayed back and forth above Atlantis.

“It was a pretty white-knuckle experience,” said Shriver, who steadied the tether and satellite with a shuttle maneuver.

NASA extended the shuttle flight from seven to eight days because of earlier problems.

The astronauts had to delay releasing a European science satellite because of communication problems last weekend. Once the craft was freed, it got stuck in a low orbit because of a computer error.

The satellite, called EURECA, reached its final 315-mile-high destination Friday after the second of two thruster firings.