STS-76 Mission Control Center 
Status Report # 18

Sunday, March 31, 1996,  8 a.m. CST

Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth early today with a 7:29
a.m. CST landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Weather at Kennedy Space Center in Florida was uncertain enough to
cause the flight control team to pass up the first and second landing
opportunities at KSC today, selecting Edwards with its excellent, more
stable weather as the landing site.

Atlantis descent from Earth orbit occurred on orbit 144 with an engine
firing at 6:25 a.m. CST.  The main gear touched down at a mission
elapsed time of 9 days, five hours, 15 minutes and 53 seconds or 7: 28
and 57 seconds central time this morning.  The spacecraft covered
approximately 3.8 million miles since its launch Feb. 22.

An early-mission leak in one of three hydraulic systems caused no
difficulty on entry.

Astronauts Kevin Chilton, Rick Searfoss, Linda Godwin, Ron Sega and
Rich Clifford are expected to return to Houston at approximately 3:30
p.m.  A welcoming ceremony at Ellington Field's Hangar 990 is open to
the public.  A more precise estimate of crew arrival time will be made
later in the day.