Space shuttle Atlantis lands in California

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., May 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis landed Sunday at Edwards Air Force Base in California, two days late due to inclement weather in Florida, NASA says.

The Space Shuttle's mission to complete repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope officially ended at 10:39 a.m. when Commander Scott Altman guided the spacecraft to a landing on Edwards' Runway 22, telling mission control that the flight was "a thrill from start to finish," the space agency's Web site said.

NASA said continued wet and rainy weather conditions over Florida's Kennedy Space Center Sunday morning forced flight controllers to wave off a landing there for the third straight day, directing the craft to instead land at the backup facility in California.

Atlantis arrived at the Hubble Space Telescope on May 13. Its crew performed five spacewalks on five consecutive days to repair and upgrade the telescope.

The flight was the 126th mission for the U.S. Space Shuttle program, NASA said.