WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour
returned home on Wednesday night at Kennedy Space Center in Florida,
ending its record-long 16-day construction mission for the International Space
Station, NASA TV broadcasted.
After a journey of 6.5 million miles (10.5 million
km), Endeavour with seven astronauts aboard touched down at 8:39 p.m. EDT
Wednesday (0039 GMT Thursday), just one hour after local sunset. The shuttle
continued to come to a full stop on the runway shortly.
"Welcome home, Endeavour," the mission control center
radioed. "Congratulations to the entire crew."
"It was a super-rewarding mission, exciting from the
start to the ending," Endeavour's commander Dominic Gorie replied.
This is the only 22nd night landing in shuttle
program history. The shuttle was originally scheduled to land at 7:05 p.m. EDT.
However, just about two hours before this first landing opportunity, clouds were
rounding up over the space center. The unstable weather forced NASA's flight
controllers to skip to the second landing opportunity at night.
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Aerospace Exploration Agency
astronauts answer questions during a news conference from the
aft flight deck of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in this NASA TV March 25,
2008 video grab. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery>>> |
Endeavour blasted off into space on March 11 in a
nighttime launch. It delivered a Canadian-built robot and the first component of
Japan's orbital laboratory Kibo to the space station.
During the 12-day stay at the orbital outpost,
astronauts performed five spacewalks, which are the most ever done in single
shuttle mission visiting the station.
They successfully assembled the two-armed robot,
attached Kibo's first room to a planned place, and did some other chores for the
station.
Spacewalkers devoted the first three spacewalks to
assembling the robot, named Dextre, outside the station. In the future, Dextre
can take over some routine maintenance tasks that have been performed by
spacewalkers, enabling astronauts to devote more time to experiments and other
scientific activities inside the space station.
The fourth spacewalk focused on testing a method for
repairing damaged shuttle heat shield tiles, while the fifth involved stowing an
inspection boom on the station.
In the meantime, Endeavour crew, along with
Expedition 16 crew at the station, attached Kibo's first component to the
station and transferred supplies from the shuttle's cargo bay into it.
Kibo, which means Hope in Japanese, is such a huge
orbital lab that NASA arranges three shuttle flights to carry every parts to the
space station. This first part serves as a storage compartment, and the main
part of the lab is scheduled to launch on the next shuttle mission in late May.
The final section, an outdoor porch with robotic arms, is due to fly next year.
In addition to the grueling construction work,
Endeavour also delivered a new resident for the station. Endeavour astronaut
Garrett Reisman switched places with Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Leopold
Eyharts, who returned to Earth aboard the shuttle.
With every assignment on the list perfectly
accomplished in such an intense construction mission, LeRoy Cain, chairman of
the mission management team at NASA described Endeavour's STS-123 as "a textbook
mission."
This is NASA's second shuttle flight in 2008. NASA's
three service shuttles will all be retired by 2010. Therefore, it hopes to
finish the construction of the 100-billion-dollar space station before that
deadline.
NASA scrubs first landing opportunity
for shuttle Endeavour
WASHINGTON, March 26 (Xinhua) -- NASA has decided to skip
Wednesday's first landing opportunity for the space shuttle Endeavour at the
Kennedy Space Center in Florida due to bad weather conditions, according to
NASA's landing blog updates.
Now NASA was aiming for the second opportunity at Kennedy,
which is set at 8:39 p.m. EDT (0039 GMT on Thursday). "The weather conditions
for the second opportunity seem to be more favorable," reported NASA's real-time
landing blog. Full story
Endeavour undocks from ISS, winds up
longest mission
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The International Space Station is seen
from a camera mounted on the shuttle Endeavour in this image from NASA TV
after the two spacecrafts undocked March 24, 2008. (Xinhua/AFP
Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. space shuttle
Endeavour on Monday undocked from the international space station and headed for
home, ending an "extraordinary mission" marked by a record five successful
spacewalks, media reported.
The shuttle has been at the station 12 days, the
longest mission ever of its kind. Full story
Astronauts conduct final spacewalk of
shuttle Endeavor's mission
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Astronaut Robert Behnken exits the Quest
airlock to begin the fifth spacewalk of the mission in this image from
NASA TV March 22, 2008.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Two astronauts of U.S. space shuttle Endeavor's
crew stepped out of the International Space Station late Saturday afternoon to
do some chores for the orbital outpost, NASA TV reported.
They entered the void of space at 4:34 p.m. EDT (2034
GMT) on Saturday, beginning the fifth and also the final spacewalk of Endeavor's
flight mission. Full story
