On Sunday, the US space shuttle Atlantis began its journey back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Atlantis is transported by Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a modified 747 jetliner and its enroute plan includes refueling stops and a stop overnight.

The arrival at Kennedy Space Center is scheduled on Monday Juley 2, but NASA officials said that one day delay is possible due to weather conditions.

On June 22, Atlantis landed at Edwards base in California, ending a successful assembly mission to the International Space Station with Commander Rick Sturckow and Pilot Lee Archambault at the controls.

Atlantis launched in June 8 after the mission was delayed for three months. Initially the shuttle was set to launch on March 15, but engineers decided to delay the mission until June to repair the 2,500 dents counted after the hail storm, which struck the shuttle February 28 as it stood on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Originally planned for 11 days, the crew had two extra days added to their flight due to an intractable solar wing on the International Space Station and the repair of an insulating blanket without which the return of the shuttle to earth would have been dangerous.

As NASA announced earlier this week, the next mission to ISS, STS-118, is slated to launch on August 7, two days earlier than the previous target.