Cape Canaveral (Florida), Sep 22 (DPA) The US Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida Thursday, bringing to a successful end its 12-day mission to resume construction of the International Space Station (ISS).

Atlantis was guided in for landing by commander Brent Jett and pilot Chris Ferguson, after the craft made its steep descent from space into the pre-dawn darkness, NASA said.

Pulled back to Earth by gravity alone, Atlantis' approach to the coastal Florida runway was at a prescribed steep, nose-down dive. The orbiter's main landing gear touched down at a speed of about 215 miles per hour.

"Nice to be back. It was a great team effort," said commander Brent Jett immediately after touchdown.

The return of the six-member crew - five men and one woman - concludes the successful mission to install solar panels for increased energy supply on the ISS - the first major construction mission to the station in nearly four years.

After the deadly disintegration of NASA's Columbia shuttle in February 2003, construction on the station came to a near standstill, pushing out the launch date for the Atlantis by nearly three and a half years.

The shuttle's return had in fact been scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed by a day because of fears that unidentified debris floating nearby on Tuesday might have hit the spacecraft, requiring extra inspections.

During the Atlantis' visit, NASA managed three space walks in only four days to install the solar sails, pushing the astronauts to their limit.