27 March 2008


CAPE CANAVERAL - The space shuttle Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, after a record-setting mission to the International Space Station to install a Japanese laboratory and a Canadian repair robot, NASA said.

Endeavour landed at 8:39 pm (0039 GMT, Thursday) after a 16-day mission that included a record 12-day docking at the ISS and five spacewalks-the most ever embarked upon in a single mission.

The shuttle touched down after an initially scheduled landing 90 minutes earlier was postponed due to poor weather conditions. It was the second nighttime landing since September 2006 and the 29th since the first one was launched in 1981.

'Welcome Endeavour,’ NASA’s Jim Dutton at mission control told the shuttle crew as they glided to a stop.

‘Okairinasai Takao. Bienvenue Leo,’ Dutton said in Japanese and French in welcoming back to Earth Japanese astronaut Takao Doi and the European Space Agency’s French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who was back from a 50-day stint on the ISS.

‘Congratulations to the team for the mission,’ Dutton said of the Endeavour’s mission, which went ahead practically without a hitch.

Endeavour commander Dominic Gorie late Sunday described the mission as an all-around success.

‘We’ve done awesome,’ Gorie said. ‘Every spacewalk was a win, every robotic op (operation) was a win.’

His comments came after mission specialists Robert Behnken and Mike Foreman attached a 50-foot sensory boom to the outside of the space station.

ISS flight director Dana Weigel said the spacewalk, often referred to by NASA officials as an EVA, or an extra-vehicular activity, had set a new record.

'This was five EVAs ... more than we’ve done on any station mission,’ he said.

The spacewalkers also successfully installed an experiment on the outside of the European Space Agency’s laboratory, which the astronauts had failed to complete during the third spacewalk on March 17.

Endeavour launched on March 11. Its mission’s main tasks were to install the first part of the Japanese Kibo lab, a micro-gravity research facility that will be the station’s largest module when completed in March 2009.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takao Doi, who is returning on the Endeavour, said Kibo ‘is going to open up a new era for Japan in the space program.’

Astronauts also tested new repair techniques for the shuttle’s heat shield. NASA has been testing different in-space repair techniques on the shuttle’s protective layer since a crack in Columbia’s heat shield caused it to explode while re-entering Earth’s atmosphere in 2003, killing its seven-member crew.

Astronauts also assembled the Canadian-made Dextre robot, which is designed to undertake maintenance operations on the space station that until now required a human touch, and reduce the need for risky spacewalks.

The robot’s human-like upper torso swivels at the waist, and its arms were designed with seven joints to provide it with maximum versatility. Umbilical connectors provide power and data connectivity.

Manipulated by joysticks inside the ISS or from ground control on Earth, the 1.56-tonne Dextre will conduct operations such as replacing small components on the station’s exterior.

NASA wants to complete construction of the ISS by 2010, when its three-shuttle fleet is scheduled to be retired.


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