First you learn to fly, then get accepted to the astronaut training program, then learn to fly a shuttle, then land it according to procedure. What, it can't be too hard can it?

Space shuttles are usually landed like an aircraft. However, if the shuttle's purpose was to go to the moon, then it would have discarded it's landing gear and would have to parachute into the ocean.

When the space shuttle returns to earth, it operates as a glider, meaning a plane without an engine. There are also no second chances. If it overshoots (or undershoots) the runway, it will crash.

The vehicle begins reentry by firing the OMS engines, while flying upside down backside first, in the opposite direction to orbital motion for about three minutes. The resulting deceleration of the Shuttle lowers its orbit perigee down into the atmosphere. The shuttle flips over by pulling its nose up (which becomes down because flying upside down). This OMS firing is done roughly halfway around the globe from the landing site. The entire reentry, except for lowering the landing gear and deploying the air data probes, is then under computer control. However the reentry can be and has (once) been flown manually. The final landing can be done on autopilot, but is usually hand flown. The vehicle starts significantly entering the atmosphere at about 400,000 ft (120 km) at around Mach 25 (8.2 km/s). The vehicle is controlled by a combination of RCS thrusters and control surfaces, to fly at a 40 degrees nose-up attitude producing high drag, not only to slow it down to landing speed, but also to reduce reentry heating. In addition, the vehicle needs to bleed off extra speed before reaching the landing site. This is achieved by performing s-curves at up to a 70 degree roll angle. In the lower atmosphere the Orbiter flies much like a conventional glider, except for a much higher descent rate, over 10,000 feet (3 km) per minute. It glides with a ratio of 4:1. At approximately Mach 3, two air data probes, located on the left and right sides of the Orbiter's forward lower fuselage, are deployed to sense air pressure related to vehicle's movement in the atmosphere. When the approach and landing phase begins, the Orbiter is at 10,000 ft (3048 m) altitude, 7.5 miles (12.1 km) to the runway. The pilots apply aerodynamic braking to help slow down the vehicle. The Orbiter's speed is reduced from 424 mph (682 km/h) to approximately 215 mph (346 km/h), (compared to 160 mph for a jet airliner), at touch-down. The landing gear is deployed while the Orbiter is flying at 267 mph (430 km/h). To assist the speed brakes, a 40 ft (12.2 m) drag chute is deployed once the nose gear touches down at about 213 mph (343 km/h). It is jettisoned as the Orbiter slows through 69 mph (111 km/h). Discovery touches down in Edwards Air Force Base at the end of STS-114.After landing, the vehicle stands on the runway for several minutes to permit the fumes from poisonous hydrazine, used as propellant for attitude control, to dissipate, and for the shuttle fuselage to cool before the astronauts disembark. Conditions permitting, the Space Shuttle will always land at Kennedy Space Center. However, if the conditions make landing there unfavorable, the Shuttle can touch down at Edwards Air Force Base in California or at other sites (Diego Garcia). A landing at Edwards means that the shuttle must be mated to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and returned to Cape Canaveral, costing NASA roughly an additional million dollars. A Space Shuttle (STS-3, Columbia) has also landed once at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_shuttle#Landing