Atlantis comes in for landing.
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Michael Foale's Biography

Atlantis Returns Home
News story originally written on October 7, 1997

Atlantis returned home with a perfect landing Monday at 4:55 p.m. CDT. The shuttle touched down at Kennedy Space Center in Florida after having been delayed a day due to bad weather conditions.

The main goal of this shuttle mission was to pick up Michael Foale at the space station Mir and return him home. David Wolf is now serving as Foale's replacement on Mir. The joint shuttle and Mir crew also transferred equipment and water from the shuttle onto Mir.

Thick clouds at the Kennedy Space Center kept Foale in orbit about the Earth for his 145th day. After routine medical exams, Foale will be united with his wife. He is also excited to see his two children, Jenna and Ian, ages 5 and 3. The first thing that Foale wants to do with his family is to celebrate his homecoming with some grilled hamburgers and some steaming-hot pizza.

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