This
story was updated at 4:14 p.m. EDT.
CAPE CANAVERAL,
Fla. -- NASA's shuttle Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew returned to Earth
Tuesday, landing one day early due to earlier concerns that Hurricane Dean
could disrupt Mission Control operations in Texas.
Endeavour
swooped down out of the Florida sky to loose two sonorous sonic booms before
making a 12:32 p.m. EDT (1632 GMT) touchdown at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility
here at the Kennedy Space Center.
"Although
it's been a short two weeks, we've accomplished a lot," shuttle commander
Scott Kelly told Mission Control this morning. "We still look very much
forward to coming home today."
Kelly and
his STS-118 crew, which includes teacher-turned-astronaut
Barbara Morgan, delivered more than two tons of cargo to the ISS, where
they replaced a broken gyroscope and installed a new starboard-side piece of
the outpost's main truss.
"I
think the shuttle program gets an A-plus," said Morgan, who served as
NASA's backup to Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe for the ill-fated 1986
Challenger mission, during the spaceflight. "Once we don't have the
shuttle anymore, I think it's going to be something we look back at with great
nostalgia and we're really, really going to miss it."
NASA chief
Michael Griffin told reporters after landing that Morgan was in good health
after her first spaceflight, but required more time to readapt to Earth's
gravity after spending almost two weeks in weightlessness.
Endeavour's
landing completed a 5.3 million-mile (8.5 million-kilometer) flight for the
orbiter, its first in nearly five years following a major systems overhaul. The
shuttle orbited the Earth about 201 times and landed with small,
but deep, gouge in the heat-resistant tiles lining the orbiter's
underbelly, but mission managers found it posed no risk to the spacecraft's
reentry.
NASA video
of the gouged tiles showed some signs of additional damage, but not the
extensive surface tunneling depicted in ground tests last week. NASA launch and
entry flight director Steve Stich said Monday that he did not anticipate any
extra tile damage would hinder preparations for Endeavour's next flight in
February.
"This
flight has been extraordinarily productive," said NASA space shuttle
program manager Wayne Hale. "Endeavour, in fact, has performed nearly
flawlessly."
Returning
to Earth aboard Endeavour with Kelly and Morgan were shuttle pilot Charlie
Hobaugh along with mission specialists Tracy Caldwell, Rick Mastracchio, Alvin
Drew, Jr. and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dave Williams.
Initially
slated for a Wednesday return, Endeavour's landing was pushed up one day due to
concerns that Hurricane Dean could prompt an evacuation of NASA's Mission
Control in Houston, Texas. Those worries fell away over the last few days as
the massive storm headed instead towards central Mexico.
Home
again
During
their 13-day
mission, Endeavour's astronaut crew performed four spacewalks to outfit the
station with a new, $11 million Starboard 5 (S5) truss. The small spacer
segment primes the station for the deliver of its fourth and final set of U.S.
solar arrays on a future shuttle flight.
"I
think the best lesson is that this is truly a marvelous place to be,"
Morgan said of the ISS. "The station is incredible. It is a work in
progress."
Williams
set a new record for the most spacewalks and spacewalking time by a Canadian
astronaut, and soaked up the views of his home planet during his three
construction sessions of the STS-118 flight.
"The
view is very hard to describe," Williams told reporters during the
mission. "All around you, you've got this panoramic view of Earth around
you. It's absolutely spectacular."
Endeavour's
crew also installed a new spare parts platform outside the ISS. The shuttle
cast off from the ISS early Sunday, leaving behind the space station's
three-astronaut crew of Expedition 15.
"Have
a good trip home, and a very safe trip," the station's Expedition 15
commander Fyodor Yurchikhin told Endeavour's crew. "We are with you."
More
work ahead
During their
flight, Endeavour's crew primed the orbital laboratory's mast-like Port 6 (P6)
truss for relocation to its port-most edge later this year. The astronauts also
topped off the station's nitrogen tanks, delivered some 77 pounds (35
kilograms) of oxygen and left the station's Expedition 15 crew with 1,000
pounds (453 kilograms) of extra water.
Yurchikin
and his Expedition 15 crewmates, during the STS-118 flight, successfully
replaced a faulty electronics box and corroded cables responsible for a major
computer crash in June.
"From
our perspective, we're completely satisfied with the mission," said Mike
Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, of STS-118. "It met every objective
that we needed to continue on with assembly."
Some of
that work begins next week on Aug. 30, when the space station's Expedition 15
crew will move a conical docking port on the station's Unity connecting node to
make way for a new module later this year.
NASA plans
at least 11 more shuttle flights to complete construction of the ISS by
September 2010, when the space agency plans to retire its three-orbiter fleet.
Two flights are slated to fly later this year: The shuttle Discovery is
scheduled to launch the new Harmony connecting node on Oct. 23, and Atlantis is
set to haul the European Columbus laboratory to the ISS on Dec. 6.
Tuesday's
landing completed NASA's 119th shuttle flight -- the 22nd bound for
the ISS -- and the 20th spaceflight for Endeavour. NASA will now begin priming
the shuttle for its next flight, STS-123 in February 2008, to deliver the first
component of Japan's Kibo laboratory to the space station.
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