By Gina Gomez
Cape Canaveral, Nov.28, (THAINDIAN NEWS) After providing essentials supplies to the International Space Center, the space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth on Friday at the Kennedy Space Center. The space shuttle with seven astronauts aboard landed safely without any complications plaguing their journey back home.

The weather conditions were also favorable with clear sky greeting the shuttle as it gradually touched the surface of the earth at around 9.44 A.M. Commander Charles Hobaugh later added that the mission was carried out successfully and the entire journey turned out to be an amazing experience for him as well as for his other crew members. The shuttle returned to earth after completing a 11 day mission which is scheduled to be one of NASA’s ultimate supply missions. During the mission, the astronauts provided spare parts as well as installed equipments and also carried out necessary maintenance works. The supplies that have been provided to the space station is expected to hugely increase the longevity of the station and keep it operational for a number of years.

NASA’s space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier later added that the entire journey of the Atlantis went smoothly almost without any hurdles. The only hazard that the astronauts had to encounter were the successive false alarms that went off in the middle of the night.

This mission is supposedly the space shuttle’s penultimate mission as it is likely to retire next year. However, Atlantis has already completed 86 percent of the orbital outpost as it has provided around 15 tons of gear. In order to fully complete the International Space Station around five shuttle missions are required which is likely to be undertaken in the near future.