Space History Photo: STS-66 Atlantis Landing and Chute Deployment at Edwards

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The Space Shuttle Atlantis lands with its drag chute deployed after STS-66 on Nov. 14, 1994. (Image credit: NASA.)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Space Shuttle Atlantis lands with its drag chute deployed on runway 22 at Edwards, California, to complete the STS-66 mission dedicated to the third flight of the Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science-3 (ATLAS-3), part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth program.

The astronauts also deployed and retrieved a free-flying satellite designed to study the middle and lower thermospheres and perform a series of experiments covering life sciences research and microgravity processing. The landing was at 7:34 a.m. (PST) November 14, 1994, after being waved off from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, due to adverse weather.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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