Space shuttle heads for California touchdown

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 22 (Reuters) NASA decided today to land the US space shuttle Atlantis at a backup landing site in California after clouds and rain prevented it from landing at its home port in Florida.

The shuttle, which spent most of its two-week mission at the International Space Station, was due to land at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert at 0119 hrs IST.

The US space agency had planned to end its first shuttle mission of the year yesterday but the spacecraft and its seven astronauts were told to stay aloft an extra day due to summer thunderstorms at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

The same typical summer conditions prevailed at Kennedy to, prompting NASA to skip two landing opportunities there.

The shuttle is barred from landing in rain due to potential damage to the thousands of black ceramic tiles that protect its underside from the searing heat of re-entry through the atmosphere.

REUTERS GL RN2337