UPDATED: (VIDEO) Atlantis Lands Successfully, NASA's Space Shuttle Program Officially Ends

Updated: Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 9 a.m.

After , NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis and its crew successfully returned to earth Thursday at approximately 4:57 a.m. CST, according to an article on NASA's website.

The 13-day mission carried a four-passenger crew—Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim—along with spare parts, food and equipment to stock the International Space Station.

The space shuttle orbiter, where the crew lives and works while in space, also serves as the landing craft. Here are five things to know about how a space shuttle orbiter is landed:

1) A returning orbiter’s glide to Kennedy Space Center begins on the opposite side of the planet.

2) The deorbit burn that will bring the orbiter back to Earth occurs about an hour before landing.

3) Approximately 30 minutes before touchdown, the orbiter begins entering the atmosphere at an altitude of about 400,000 feet.

4) At approximately 45,000 feet, the orbiter starts maneuvers that enable it to intercept the landing approach corridor at the desired altitude and velocity.

5) As the orbiter nears the landing site, the commander takes manual control and steers the vehicle into the nearest of two Heading Alignment Cones (HACs) to line up the spacecraft with the center line of the runway.

Click the "play" button on the above video to see the Atlantis landing at Kennedy Space Center.

All information was taken from NASA's website. Coverage of the landing will begin at 4:30 a.m. EST on NASA's landing blog. See the attached PDF for more landing facts.