NASA 911, a Boeing 747 modified to carry the space shuttle, thunders off Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base with the shuttle Atlantis on its back on the first leg of Atlantis' ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA photo/Tony Landis)
NASA 911, a Boeing 747 modified to carry the space shuttle, lifts off Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base carrying the shuttle Atlantis on its back on the first leg of Atlantis' ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA photo/Tom Tschida)
Space Shuttle Atlantis is carried by one of NASA's modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft over California's high desert after leaving NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base on a ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA Photo/Jim Ross)
NASA Dryden photographer Jim Ross captured this overhead view of Space Shuttle Atlantis atop NASA's modified 747 carrier aircraft over California's high desert from an F/A-18 Hornet mission support aircraft after departing Edwards Air Force Base on a ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA Photo/Jim Ross)
Southern California's high desert provides the backdrop as a NASA modified 747 Shuttle Carrier aircraft ferries Space Shuttle Atlantis back to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., after departing NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. Atlantis had landed at Edwards to conclude shuttle mission STS-125, the final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA Photo/Jim Ross)