U.S space shuttle Atlantis lands after successful mission

WASHINGTON, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Space shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Sunday morning after a successful mission to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

Space Shuttle Atlantis lands in the Mojave Desert at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base near Mojave, California. The space shuttle Atlantis touched down at its alternative landing  spot in California Sunday after a successful mission to repair and  upgrade the Hubble Telescope. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

Weather conditions forced flight controllers to pass up the shuttle's first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said.

Thunderstorms had prevented the Atlantis from returning to its Florida home base for the third day in a row.

The shuttle, STS-125, arrived at the Hubble Space Telescope at the International Space Station on May 13. During the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, Atlantis' seven astronauts performed five spacewalks on five consecutive days to repair and upgrade the telescope, according to NASA.

The crew repaired two instruments, installed two new ones and three New Outer Blanket Layers (NOBLs), and replaced all six batteries and gyroscopes, and one Fine Guidance Sensor, said NASA, which described the mission as "highly successful."