Hitching a ride on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Atlantis is ready for takeoff from El Paso.

Hitching a ride on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, a modified Boeing 747, space shuttle Atlantis is ready for takeoff from El Paso. Atlantis landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 24, which concluded mission STS-125, after two landing opportunities at Kennedy were waved off due to weather concerns. Atlantis is being returned to Florida on a ferry flight on the SCA. Atlantis' next assignment is the STS-129 mission, targeted to launch in November 2009. Photo credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky