"Nice job on the approach and landing there, Dom, to you and your crew," astronaut Jim "Vegas" Kelly said from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.

"He looks like he was spot on," added NASA chief astronaut Charlie Precourt, who was flying a weather reconnaissance aircraft in the area at the time.

Twenty minutes later, Endeavours side hatch was opened so that the Expedition Three crew could climb out of the shuttle and into an awaiting transport vehicle for post-flight medical tests.

The three spacemen were "more than ready to feel the Earth one more time," Gorie reported.

The landing came with Christmas just eight days away -- perfect timing as far as Culbertson and his crewmates were concerned.

"Were grateful to be home for Christmas," the veteran U.S. astronaut said.

"Welcome back to Earth," Kelly replied from Mission Control. "Were happy to have you back."

Coming 12 days after a heavily guarded Dec. 5 launch, the same show of military might was not apparent as Endeavour returned to Earth.

No military fighter jets or helicopter gunships were evident, and an expanded "no-fly zone" put in place around NASA's coastal spaceport prior to launch was not in effect either.

The likely reason: A high-flying orbiter making a speedy return from space is a much less vulnerable target that a fully fueled shuttle standing on an exposed beachside launch pad.

Nevertheless, security forces here have been in an elevated state of readiness ever since the attacks, and cars, trucks and vans were subject to searches at KSC gates.

U.S. Air Force officials, meanwhile, indicated that other, less obvious measures also had been put in place to protect Endeavour and its crew.

"We've always been prepared for everything, and we believe we're prepared right now," Lt. Warren Comer, a spokesman for the Air Force's 45th Space Wing, said prior to touchdown.

Headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base, the wing provides tracking, range safety and security services for shuttle launches and landings.

The tire-smoking touchdown marked the end of a 129-day stay in space for Culbertson and his two Russian colleagues, who were launched to the station Aug. 10 aboard shuttle Discovery.

The Expedition Three crew carried out 65 U.S. and Russian research experiments on the station and also oversaw the delivery of a new Russian airlock that doubles as an extra docking port for Soyuz crew transport vehicles and Progress cargo carriers.

Now living and working on the station: Russian commander Yuri Onufrienko and U.S. flight engineers Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz. The trio flew up to the station on Endeavour and will remain there until mid-May.

Some 3.5 tons of food, clothing, supplies and research equipment were hauled up to the outpost by the Endeavour crew, which included pilot Mark Kelly and mission specialists Linda Godwin and Daniel Tani.

The goods and gear were carried in a shuttle-borne moving van now stowed in Endeavour's cargo bay. Two tons of luggage, surplus station gear, scientific research samples and trash were returned to Earth within it.

Also making the round trip aboard Endeavour: The 10,000 "Flags For Heroes and Families" as well as a poster bearing the photographs of the 343 New York City firefighters who perished at the World Trade Center.

The shields of 23 New York City police officers killed responding to the attack also are packed away on the shuttle along with a tattered American flag recovered from the Ground Zero, a Marine Corps flag retrieved from the Pentagon and the U.S. flag that was flying over the state capitol in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

The small, postcard-sized flags will be distributed to the families of Sept. 11 victims in the coming months. The other memorabilia will be returned to the agencies or entities that arranged for the items to be carried aboard Endeavour.

NASA's 107th shuttle mission was the seven flown to the international station since the first full-time crew boarded the outpost for a "shake-down cruise" 13 months ago.

In that time, the station has grown to a sprawling 184-ton outpost that sports a $1.4 billion U.S. science lab, a $600 million Canadian-built robot arm and a $600 million U.S. electrical power tower topped by American-made solar wings that stretch 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip.

Fifteen U.S. and Russian spacecraft visited the outpost during that span along with astronauts and cosmonauts from six nations: the U.S., Russia, Canada, Italy, Japan and France.

Station crews and ground-based researchers operating experiments by remote control have tallied more than 50,000 hours of scientific work.

And 18 spacewalks also were performed as part of the assembly and maintenance of the growing outpost, which eventually will cover an area as large as two American football fields.

"It's been a remarkable year," said Milt Heflin, a representative of NASA's Mission Operations Directorate at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "If you look at what's been accomplished I think there are some staggering numbers."

The coming year, meanwhile, is expected to be just as busy.

A daunting mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope is scheduled to launch Feb. 14. The flagship observatory will be outfitted with a new, advanced planetary camera during that flight, which will feature a quintet of spacewalks on five consecutive days.

The first Israeli astronaut will launch into space aboard Columbia in late June and four shuttle missions will be carried out as part of a plan to start assembling a central station truss that eventually will stretch 356 feet (108 meters) from end to end.

"Next year will be just as challenging," said NASA shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore. "There's a lot of work remaining in the coming months ahead of us, and we look forward to meeting the challenges both safely and successfully."