The five crew members of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-98 mission depart NASA Dryden to return to the Johnson Space Center at Houston. They briefly extended greetings to Dryden staff members on the ramp area behind Dryden's Main Building at a crew ceremony on February 21, 2001. Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at 12:33 p.m. February 20, 2001, on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base, California, where NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is located. The mission, which began February 7, logged 5.3 million miles as the shuttle orbited earth while delivering the Destiny science laboratory to the International Space Station. Inclement weather conditions in Florida prompted the decision to land Atlantis at Edwards. The last time a space shuttle landed at Edwards was Oct. 24, 2000.
