Blood and other body fluids also pool in the head and upper torso, only to rush back down toward the feet during atmospheric reentry -- a phenomenon that leaves many returning space travelers dizzy.

Culbertson, Dezhurov and Turin, however, spent an hour or two a day exercising aboard the outpost -- workouts aimed at warding off a woozy, wobbly return to Earth.

The three returning spacemen also were strapped into reclining couches on the lower deck of the shuttle's crew cabin during the ship's dive back through the atmosphere, decreasing the rush of blood and body fluids from head to toe.

And while the return to gravity made the three feel about five times heavier than normal, Gorie said they all fared well during the shuttle's hour-long freefall to the planet's surface.

"They were not suffering at all. Frank kept telling us that he was doing great down there -- (that he) just felt very, very heavy," the shuttle skipper said. "And once we got on the ground, he was very upbeat, from what we've heard."

Sticking with standard procedure, Culbertson and his crewmates were whisked off for a short family reunion and then a lengthy battery of post-flight medical tests with four U.S. and Russian flight surgeons.

It was unclear, consequently, whether Culbertson had a chance to chow down on a request bowl of ice cream or whether Turin had sated his thirst for a frothy, cold glass of beer.

"What I saw downstairs (at crew quarters) were apples and bagels and some fruit. But the staff up stairs is preparing a meal and I'm sure that ice cream is not far away," Gorie said.

"There is beer in the building," he added. "But I would have to think that (Turin) is going to wait on that so it doesn't compromise the medical tests."

The doctors planned to keep the trio at Kennedy Space Center until Wednesday when the medics will escort the crew back to their homes in Houston.

Two rookie shuttle astronauts, meanwhile, said the 12-day round trip to the station was nothing short of remarkable.

Pilot Mark Kelly got a chance to take full control of Endeavour when the shuttle departed the station last Saturday, flying the $2 billion ship on a half-loop over the top of the 17-story outpost as the planet circled below.

"It was just spectacular, especially when you consider what part of the world we flew over," the former U.S. Navy combat pilot said.

"It was right over the Caribbean. The weather was great when we came over the top, and the view was just something that's almost indescribable -- looking down at that beautiful space station and the Caribbean Ocean and the islands underneath it. It was just incredible.

Mission specialist Dan Tani was equally awed gawking at the frequent orbital sunrises and sunsets as the shuttle passed from the dark to the sunlit side of Earth 16 times a day.

"The cockpit goes from virtually pitch black to blindingly bright in 10 seconds, and then back to black on the other side just as quickly," he said. "It's stunning."

Only the second Japanese-American to fly in space, Tani said a spacewalk he carried out with fellow mission specialist Linda Godwin was "just great. It was awe-inspiring to be outside -- be my own little satellite."

The excursion called for he and Godwin to scale to the summit of the station's U.S. electric power tower, which serves as a base for massive American solar wings that stretch 240 feet (73 meters) from tip to tip.

And while he and Godwin were repairing two balky motor drives there, Tani said he was able to look down and see the Houston suburb where he and his family live.

Absolutely unforgettable, though, was gazing out the window at night as the shuttle passed over the town where he grew up -- Chicago -- and then cruised swiftly toward New York City.

"It was a clear night," he said, one in which he could see Milwaukee, Chicago, Lake Michigan, Detroit, Cleveland and finally the borough of Manhattan pass below.

"And I could look back and in one view see from the east coast all the way to the Midwest -- including Chicago -- and then the horizon lit up," Tani added. "That was just a spectacular thought -- that I could see all those people that I know in that one glimpse. I'll never forget that."

One of the things that stuck in Gorie's mind, meanwhile, took place before the shuttle even took off for the station.

The first wartime launch in the history of NASA took place amid unprecedented security -- a fact not lost on the shuttle skipper and his crew.

Military fighter jets and helicopter gunships were in the air, and an expansive "no-fly zone" was set up around NASA's coastal Florida spaceport to keep any aircraft from coming within about 35 miles (56 kilometers) of the fully fueled shuttle on its exposed beachside launch pad.

"You know, as we were driving out to the pad in a transport vehicle, we looked out, and 100 yards in front of it was a helicopter with two armed crewman in it," Gorie recalled.

"It lets you know that we're living in a different world -- just like when we go to the airport and we see things like that. And that's just the way it's going to be from now on," he added. "And it think that's how it has to be so that we don't have another occurrence like we had (on Sept. 11)."