Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. – A jumbo jet carrying space shuttle Atlantis took off today on a return trip to the shuttle’s launch site at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A modified Boeing 747 with the shuttle mounted on its back left from the Mojave Desert air base, said Alan Brown, a spokesman at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. It landed at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha this afternoon, NASA spokeswoman Jennifer Tharpe said.
NASA officials were monitoring the weather in Nebraska and in Florida and did not expect to take off until Monday morning, NASA spokeswoman Jennifer Tharpe said.
“We might just sit tight and remain overnight here and start again tomorrow,” Tharpe said.
The jet also made a refueling stop in Amarillo, Texas, making a rare landing on a commercial runway.
NASA spokesman Bill Johnson had said earlier that the jet was not expected to arrive at Cape Canaveral until at least Monday, with the possibility of a Tuesday arrival if weather is bad.
Atlantis, carrying seven astronauts, landed June 22 after a 14-day mission to continue building the international space station.
Unfavorable weather at its Florida launch site forced it to divert to its alternate landing site in California.
NASA prefers to land shuttles in Florida to avoid the cost of transporting them back on a cross-country flight.
