Live in orbit: Crew gets "go" for 9:07 a.m. landing

The Atlantis astronauts have been given a green light for a critical engine firing that will propel their shuttle on to a 9:07 a.m. at Kennedy Space Center.

NASA Chief Astronaut Steve Lindsey, who is flying approaches to the three-mile shuttle runway, noted a thin deck of clouds between 10,000 and 11,000 feet and a bit of a tail wind.

The two-minute, 43-second firing will slow Atlantis enough to drop it out of orbit and onto an hour-long free-fall to KSC Runway 15. This will be the 67th landing at Kennedy Space Center in the 121 shuttle missions to date.