One day after their return to Earth, the seven astronaut crew of the space shuttle Atlantis flew to their home base, the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Saturday.

That’s where they were reunited with family members after a two-week mission in orbit. One of the crew, Sunita “Suni” Williams, had only hitched a ride home, after a six-month stint on board the International Space Station.

The Atlantis crew began its mission June 8 and arrived at the station June 10. They quickly began work to install the Starboard  truss structure to the outpost and retracted a set of arrays on the Port 6 truss. The Starboard truss contains a new set of solar arrays that increases station power-generation capabilities. The P6 will be relocated during a future assembly mission.

The shuttle returned to Earth on Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert, after bad weather in Florida ruled out a landing at Cape Canaveral. NASA expects to return Atlantis to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in six or seven days.

Landing also marked the end of a record-setting spaceflight by Williams. She broke the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman, at nearly 195 days.

Williams’ journey began in December. She switched places with Clayton Anderson, who is now a flight engineer on the station.

The latest shuttle flight was 118th mission and 21st mission to visit the space station. The next launch is set for August.

Photo: Courtesy NASA