HOUSTON -- Space shuttle Atlantis knifed through a deck of clouds over the Kennedy Space Center runway on its way to a safe landing at 9:07 a.m. EST.

Onboard were seven astronauts, including Dan Tani, who completed a four-month mission aboard the International Space Station.

"Welcome home, Atlantis; welcome home, Dan," radioed Mission Control spokesman Jim Dutton after the shuttle rolled to a stop. "Congrats on delivering Columbus to its new world," he said, referring to a European-built laboratory, named Columbus, which astronauts had attached to the space station.

"It's been a great mission," radioed Cmdr. Steve Frick from Atlantis' cockpit. "We're extremely happy to be home. It's such a beautiful day in Florida. We can't wait to see our families, who hopefully were all at the stands here watching."

Notwithstanding Frick's observations, the day was not quite as beautiful as he or Mission Control would have liked. An unexpected cloud deck greeted the shuttle as it neared the runway, and astronauts were unable to see it until they descended below 11,000 feet. Guidance systems and Frick's training worked perfectly, however, and the landing was smooth and uneventful.

The touchdown, complete with powerful sonic booms that rolled across Central Florida, was the completion of a 14-day, 5 million-mile mission. The addition of the Columbus lab, years behind schedule because of the shuttle Columbia accident in 2003, is hailed in Europe as that region's first foray into permanent human occupation of space.

European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts, a general in the French Air Force, is now a resident of the space station, having taken the place of American Tani. A new space station control center is now up and running in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. It's one of three centers, including others in Houston and Moscow, overseeing activities aboard the station.

Eventually, NASA plans to turn over most of the operations of the space station to Russia, Europe and Japan, in order to devote its resources to a return to the moon.

During Atlantis' flight, the astronauts made three spacewalks and delivered food, water and other supplies to the station. One astronaut, Hans Schlegel of Germany, suffered an illness that kept him from making a spacewalk. There was no other trouble during the flight, which NASA is calling one of its most problem-free missions.

The crew of the shuttle was surprised mid-flight with the news that the Navy plans to shoot down an errant satellite. Mission Control made sure the shuttle would come home before the attempt, to prevent the shuttle from running afoul of any debris.

If necessary, NASA was prepared to land Atlantis in California to get it home before the missile launch. But weather in Florida, despite the clouds, was just good enough.

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