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As space shuttle Atlantis landed at the end of mission STS-129, astronaut Nicole Stott completed a first -- and a last.

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NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida 
welcomed her home as its first former

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employee to live and work aboard the International Space Station.

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Stott's return also marked another significant event -- the last time a station

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crew member traveled to or from the station aboard a space shuttle.

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She joined the space station's six-person crew when she launched aboard shuttle Discovery in August.

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Her launch came more than two decades after she began her NASA career at Kennedy.

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It was a career that brought her high-level experience with both the shuttle and the station.

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Stott began working at Kennedy in 1988 as a shuttle program operations engineer.

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Before heading to space this summer, the native of Clearwater, Florida talked about her time at Kennedy.

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Stott: "After growing up in Florida and seeing shuttles launch while I was at university,

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I got a job at Kennedy Space Center in shuttle operations... I mean, what cooler place could you be working?

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And every step of the way there, I was just thrilled with the jobs I had."

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Stott went on to serve as landing convoy commander, and later as shuttle Endeavour's flow director.

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Stott: "I'm working on a space shuttle. I'm on the runway for landing...

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I'm in the control center where we're launching the shuttle. I mean, it didn't seem like it could get any cooler than that...

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And fortunately, I had people that I considered to be mentors that I worked with there."

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During her last two years at Kennedy, she joined the Space Station Hardware Integration Office.

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Stott was selected by NASA as an astronaut in July 2000.

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While other employees from Kennedy have gone on to become astronauts,

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Stott's time living and working aboard the station makes her experience unique.

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As the STS-129 mission ended and the landing convoy she once commanded surrounded

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Atlantis on the runway, Stott's journey came full circle -- from Kennedy --  to space -- and back home again.

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Nicole Stott: "Everything I did with hardware here at KSC, with knowing how dedicated the people that working on the hardware,

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it prepares you. I mean, you feel like you have an intimate relationship with not only the people here at the space center,

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but with the hardware itself. And I think that, you know, I felt good every step of the way.

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You know, from launch through landing, I, you know, felt good about the hardware and the people that had prepared it for me.

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So, I think it was a definite, you know, probably No. 1 on the list of making me ready."

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