Endeavour lands at Kennedy Space Centre

Feb 22, 2010, 15:22 GMT

   Washington - The space shuttle Endeavour landed late Sunday at Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral, Florida, ending a mission that delivered and installed a new 'bay window' on the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

   The US spacecraft landed with six crew members at 10:21 pm (0321 Monday GMT).

   The completed mission leaves just four more shuttle launches before the US space agency NASA retires its ageing fleet of reusable orbiters.

   The crew completed two weeks in space including nine days of joint operations with the ISS multinational four-member crew, undocking early Saturday GMT to begin its return to Earth.

   Shuttle crew members completed three spacewalks to install the Italian-made Tranquility module and its cupola aboard the ISS.

   The node leaves the station more than 90 per cent complete after more than 12 years of construction. Tranquility provides the permanent crew of the International Space Station (ICC) with more room and houses life support and environmental control systems, a treadmill and other equipment.

   The most anticipated part of Tranquility was the six-windowed cupola, which allows astronauts to operate robotic controls and get a 360-degree view, like a crane operator sitting in a glass cabin.

   Built of specially equipped glass that protects crew from solar radiation, the cupola allows scientific observations and provides long-term astronauts with a much-needed glimpse of home.

   Tranquility is about 7 metres long, with a 4.5-metre diameter and weighs approximately 18 tons. The cupola is 1.5 metres long, 3 metres in diameter and weighs 1,880 kilograms.

   Endeavour spent an unscheduled extra day at the ISS to allow astronauts more time to move oxygen and water systems into Tranquility.

   The US space shuttles, which are the only spacecraft big enough to haul large components to the ISS, are to be retired later this year, with just four more flights planned before September.