The space shuttle Endeavour is seen above Earth. (AAP)
The US space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday at a California air base to conclude a 16-day mission to the International Space Station, after two Florida landing chances
were ruled out due to poor weather.
NASA officials announced that two earlier landing attempts had been aborted due to poor weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Just after the Endeavour undocked Friday from the International SpaceStation (ISS), a final inspection of its nose cap and wing leading edge panels was conducted by camera and laser device.
After completing the damage assessment, NASA's Mission Management Team cleared Endeavour's thermal shield for a safe entry and landing, said the team's chairman, LeRoy Cain.
All up Endeavour spent 16 days inorbit, 12 of them docked at the ISS.
During their mission, Endeavour astronauts took four space walks tosuccessfully repair a jammed joint of one of three rotating solar panels that harvest energy for the orbiting ISS.
Technical problems with a new piece of equipment that recycles waste watercaused NASA to extend the mission by a day.
The 250-million-dollar device was an essential part of the shuttle missionto double the station's accommodation capacity.
Crew members ran three successful cycles on the unit, designed to processurine, perspiration and bath water into drinkable water.
Once up and running, the unit will be able to recycle the station's 6.8tons of waste water produced each year, eliminating the need to regularly ferry vast quantities of water to the space station.
Samples of the drinking water produced by the machine are being broughtback to Earth for analysis.
The Endeavour crew also delivered two new sleeping quarters, two ovens anda refrigerator that double the living space on the ISS to allow its crew to increase from three to six.
The Endeavour mission is the last by a US space shuttle in 2008. The nextshuttle flight is scheduled for February, with another mission to continue building the space station.
The ISS should be completed in 2010, also the target date for theretirement of the US fleet of three space shuttles.
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[headline] => Home sweet home for shuttle Endeavour
[abstract] => Bad weather scuppered two efforts to land the space shuttle Endeavour
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touchdown later in the day at Edwards Air Base in California's Mojave
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The US space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday at a California air base to conclude a 16-day mission to the International Space Station, after two Florida landing chances
were ruled out due to poor weather.
NASA officials announced that two earlier landing attempts had been aborted due to poor weather conditions at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Just after the Endeavour undocked Friday from the International SpaceStation (ISS), a final inspection of its nose cap and wing leading edge panels was conducted by camera and laser device.
After completing the damage assessment, NASA's Mission Management Team cleared Endeavour's thermal shield for a safe entry and landing, said the team's chairman, LeRoy Cain.
All up Endeavour spent 16 days inorbit, 12 of them docked at the ISS.
During their mission, Endeavour astronauts took four space walks tosuccessfully repair a jammed joint of one of three rotating solar panels that harvest energy for the orbiting ISS.
Technical problems with a new piece of equipment that recycles waste watercaused NASA to extend the mission by a day.
The 250-million-dollar device was an essential part of the shuttle missionto double the station's accommodation capacity.
Crew members ran three successful cycles on the unit, designed to processurine, perspiration and bath water into drinkable water.
Once up and running, the unit will be able to recycle the station's 6.8tons of waste water produced each year, eliminating the need to regularly ferry vast quantities of water to the space station.
Samples of the drinking water produced by the machine are being broughtback to Earth for analysis.
The Endeavour crew also delivered two new sleeping quarters, two ovens anda refrigerator that double the living space on the ISS to allow its crew to increase from three to six.
The Endeavour mission is the last by a US space shuttle in 2008. The nextshuttle flight is scheduled for February, with another mission to continue building the space station.
The ISS should be completed in 2010, also the target date for theretirement of the US fleet of three space shuttles.
[start_date] => 01 December 2008 | 07:22:13 AM
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