Shuttle Waits Out Rain, Makes Night Landing
Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew of five returned to Earth after delivering and installing a new portal for spacewalkers at the international space station.
The shuttle swooped to a landing on the floodlighted runway at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 11:39 p.m. EDT, following a one-day rain delay.
A line of showers prevented Atlantis from returning to its home base Tuesday morning and added a 13th day to the flight, which had already been extended by a day because outfitting the portal, or air lock, took longer than expected.
It was only the 18th space shuttle landing in darkness in 20 years.
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