> Atlantis begins descent

LOS ANGELES, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Because of bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Shuttle Atlantis was diverted to California on Friday to land at the Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles, NASA officials said.

The shuttle was scheduled to touch down at 12:49 p.m. local time.

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Space shuttle Atlantis landed Friday at its backup location in California after rain and clouds over Florida ruled out Kennedy Space Center.

"We couldn't quite get comfortable with (Kennedy)," Mission Control told the Atlantis crew. "We are going to target Edwards."

Atlantis fired its engines at 2:45 p.m. EDT in preparation for the landing. The de-orbit burn slowed the spacecraft down for its return through Earth's atmosphere. The shuttle and its crew of seven astronauts landed at Edwards Air Force Base about an hour later.

NASA managers had decided to skip an earlier chance to land in Florida because of showers that were within 34 miles of the landing strip and clouds below 8,000 feet, both violations of flight rules.

NASA prefers to land at Kennedy because it is easier and far cheaper to get Atlantis to its nearby hangar to be prepared for its next mission in December. A landing in California adds a cost of about $1.7 million and 10 days to get the shuttle home to Florida aboard a jumbo jet.

Atlantis had enough power for its systems to orbit until Sunday, but managers didn't want to wait that long.

During the crew's 14-day mission to the international space station, the astronauts installed a new truss segment, unfurled a new pair of power-generating solar arrays and activated a rotating joint that allows the new solar arrays to track the sun.

Originally scheduled for 11 days, the mission was extended by two days to give astronauts time to repair a thermal blanket that had peeled away during the June 8 launch. Astronaut Danny Olivas stapled it back into place during a spacewalk. An extra day in orbit was added after the weather in Florida prevented a landing Thursday.

The shuttle's visit to the space station was complicated by the crash of Russian computers that control orientation and oxygen production.

Atlantis helped the station maintain its orientation for several days until the computers were revived. Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov used a cable to bypass a circuit board.

The cosmonauts at the space station attempted to power the Russian computers Thursday without using the cable bypass, but it was unsuccessful.