Discovery lands in Florida, concluding flying career

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. space shuttle Discovery landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday, ending its nearly 27-year flying career as the world's most-traveled spaceship.

According to NASA, Discovery touched down at 11:57 a.m. EST ( 1657 GMT) after a 13-day resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).     Full story

Endeavor lifts off for final voyage

WASHINGTON, May 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. space shuttle Endeavor lifts off on Monday morning from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to deliver to the International Space Station a 2-billion-dollar, multinational particle detector known as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS).

It is the 25th and final scheduled flight for the spaceship, a 20-year-old space exploration veteran.     Full story

U.S. astronauts wrap up last spacewalk of shuttle era

WASHINGTON, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Two U.S. astronauts stepped out the International Space Station on Tuesday to retrieve a failed ammonia pump, which is the last spacewalk of the shuttle era, NASA announced.

Space station astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan completed the six-hour, 31-minute spacewalk at 3:53 p.m. EDT (1953 GMT). The duo retrieved a pump module from an external stowage platform on station and store it in shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay for return to Earth.     Full story

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