Shuttle Endeavour lands safely

The latest mission to the space station included five spacewalks.

McClatchy Newspapers

MIAMI — Seven astronauts aboard the space shuttle Endeavour made a safe, though late, return to the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday.

Although clouds around the space center kept Miami Palmetto High graduate Dominic Gorie and his crew in space for about 2- 1‚Ñ2 hours longer than planned, the shuttle touched down at 8:39 p.m.

Even as the astronauts made their way home, NASA workers were busy readying the shuttle Discovery for a May 25 launch and another International Space Station construction job.

Endeavour’s 16-day construction mission to the International Space Station included five spacewalks and one of the more complex installations astronauts have handled.

“It has been highly successful,” said NASA spokesperson Candrea Thomas. “We are very pleased.”

It was also the longest mission to the space station.

During the mission, astronauts installed a major piece of robotic equipment on the outside of the International Space Station. The Canadian-built robot will do some types of chores that have been done by humans in the past. Astronauts also delivered the first segment of a Japanese laboratory, a closet-size room for scientists to use for future experiments.

The astronauts tested a caulklike paste to see if it could be used for emergency repair of damaged heat resistant thermal tiles should one be gouged by debris during blast off.

The tiles are essential to keep hot gases from penetrating the shuttle during its fiery reentry to the earth’s atmosphere.

Besides Gorie, the crew included pilot Gregory Johnson; U.S. astronauts Rick Linnehan, Robert L. Behnken and Mike Foreman, as well as Japanese astronaut Takao Doi and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who is returning from a stint on the space station.

As the astronauts headed home, work was already under way for the May 25 launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery.

The huge external fuel tank for Discovery’s mission to the space station arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, Thomas said.

After the May shuttle launch, there are three others scheduled for this year: Aug. 28, Oct. 16 and Dec. 4.

People may watch the shuttle landing on the Web by going to www.nasa.gov/ntv.