NASA on Wednesday gave a green light for the return to Earth of the shuttle Atlantis, which was to be retired after its final voyage to space.
The shuttle, capping a 25-year career of space flight, was authorized to break out of orbit at 1141 GMT, starting a 67-minute descent towards the Kennedy Space Center in Florida where it was scheduled to land at 8:48 am (1248 GMT).
The landing will bring an end to a 12-day mission during which Atlantis delivered more than 12 tonnes of material to the International Space Station.
It was Atlantis' 32nd and final mission and will be followed by only two more shuttle flights, one by Discovery in mid-September and the program's final mission by Endeavour at the end of November.
Once the shuttle program ends, the United States will rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to carry its astronauts to the space station until a commercial US launcher can be developed. That is scheduled for 2015.
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
