Landing of space shuttle brings ho-hum to most editors

Greeted by yawns in newsrooms was the Friday return of space shuttle Atlantis landing in California after a two-week mission to the international space station coupled with the return of a record-setting woman astronaut, notes Grumpy Editor who surveyed Saturday front pages of key newspapers, including:

The Los Angeles Times (Atlantis landed at nearby Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California), Washington Post, Washington Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Boston Globe, Detroit News, New York Times, Kansas City Star and Dallas Morning News.

Result:  Surprisingly, all skipped mention of the space shuttle on page 1.  Those with “refer” boxes on front pages also bypassed Atlantis.

Some ran a landing photo with caption only on an inside page.

One major newspaper to put Atlantis material on the front page was the Houston Chronicle, mainly because of the nearby Johnson Space Center.  Atop the front page, it ran a photo of Atlantis landing at Edwards, with reference to a story inside the first section.

An overlooked angle with Atlantis was the return of Suni Williams who spent 195 days at the space station, setting an endurance record for the longest single space flight by a woman.  She also set a record for most time spacewalking by a woman.

Now, if she had changed her name to Paris Hilton…