Space shuttle Endeavour returned to its Florida home port on Tuesday, touching down safely at the Kennedy Space Centre following a hectic but successful 13-day mission to the International Space Station.
Commander Scott Kelly gently steered the 100-tonne spaceship through breezy, blue skies before nosing Endeavour down on to a 4,8km canal-lined runway at 16h32 GMT, just a short distance from the seaside launch pad where the shuttle’s journey began on August 8.
Nasa brought the shuttle home a day earlier than planned when it appeared Hurricane Dean could force an evacuation of the Houston centre that operates the shuttle during flight. The storm, which reached Mexico’s Caribbean coast on Tuesday, instead turned toward the south.
The shuttle and its seven-member crew spent nine days at the space station to deliver new components and prepare the $100-billion complex for additional laboratory modules.
The crew includes Barbara Morgan, a former teacher who originally trained as the back-up to Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who died in the ill-fated Challenger mission in 1986.
Morgan participated in three educational events but spent most of her time overseeing the transfer of cargo to and from the outpost and operating the shuttle’s robot arm.
The flight put Nasa on notice that its $1,5-billion effort to recover from the 2003 Columbia disaster was not finished.
A small piece of insulation fell off Endeavour’s tank at launch and smashed into two heat-resistant tiles on the ship’s belly, sparking a six-day effort to determine if a risky spacewalk to plug the gash would be needed.
In the end, Nasa managers said they were 100% confident the damage would pose no threat to the shuttle. — Reuters