THE space shuttle Atlantis has been told to land in California after missing its landing slots in Florida due to bad weather.Clouds and rain prevented space shuttle Atlantis from being cleared to land at Kennedy Space Centre over the last two days, Nasa said.The change to California's Edwards Air Base will cost £8.5million but landing the shuttle in bad conditions would violate flight rules.Earlier today Mission Control told the shuttle crew: "Our mindset down here is we’re going to land you somewhere safely today."And after an attempt to land in Florida was abandoned this afternoon the decision was made to make the change.Atlantis’ astronauts took two steps in preparation for landing by putting on their orange spacesuits and closing the shuttle’s payload bay doors, which are kept open during flights to keep heat from building up.The shuttle, which spent most of its mission at the International Space Station, is due to land in the Mojave Desert at 19.49pm GMT.During the crew’s 13-day mission the astronauts installed a new truss segment, opened out a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun. (The Sun)
