CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Shuttle Endeavours astronauts took a cross-country detour and landed in California Tuesday, winding up a high-stakes mission to erect a $600 million Canadian robot arm at the International Space Station.
With astronauts from the United States, Russia, Canada and Italy aboard, the 110-ton spaceship swooped through crystal clear skies after 186 orbits of Earth, gliding to a 12:11 p.m. EDT (16:11 GMT) touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base north of Los Angeles.
Forced to forgo two landing opportunities due to dismal weather here at NASAs Kennedy Space Center (KSC), the stubby-winged shuttle then rolled to a halt on a concrete runway at the Mojave Desert military base.
"Houston, Endeavour. Wheels stop," shuttle skipper Kent Rominger said in a radio call to flight directors at NASAs Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.
"And Endeavour, Houston. Copy. Wheels stop," fellow astronaut Scott Altman replied from Houston. "Welcome back after a tremendously successful mission taking the arm to space."
"Its great to be back," Rominger added.
Coming 11 days, 21 hours and 30 minutes after an April 19 launch, the shuttle landing followed an hourlong free fall that started over the Indian Ocean just east of Africa.
Endeavour was flying upside down with its tail pointed in the direction of travel as Rominger fired the shuttles two bell-shaped maneuvering engines at 11:06 a.m. EDT (15:06 GMT), a move that sent the ship on a supersonic dive back through the atmosphere.
The shuttle passed over the southern tip of Australia and then crossed the Pacific Ocean before making landfall over the California coast.
Trademark twin sonic booms then echoed, heralding Endeavours arrival as the ship made a sweeping left turn to line up with the Antelope Valley runway.
NASA prefers landing shuttles at its coastal Florida spaceport. It costs roughly $1 million and takes a week or two to ferry a shuttle from California to Florida atop a modified 747 jumbo jet.
For the third time in the past seven months, however, a shuttle homeport homecoming was not in the cards.
With gloomy weather forecast all week in central Florida, NASA flight controllers reversed course on an earlier plan to keep the shuttle in orbit an extra day rather than land in California 3,000 miles (4,800 kilometers) away from family and friends gathered at KSC.
"After getting an update on weather at the Cape, its solidly no-go observed right now and forecast to basically be that way for the rest of the week," Altman told the astronauts before they were diverted to Edwards.
"So rather than keep you up there going around, were going to target Edwards," he added. "It looks like a great day out there on the West Coast light winds at all altitudes, including the surface."
NASA flight rules prohibit a daylight landing attempt if runway crosswinds top 15 knots, if thick cloud-decks drop below 8,000 feet (2,426 meters) or if rain creeps within 34.5 statute miles (55.2 kilometers) of a shuttle landing strip.
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