P
Patriot Games
Guest
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341952,00.html
Endeavour Returns to Earth, Makes Rare Nighttime Landing
Thursday, March 27, 2008
March 24: The international space station appears very small as space
shuttle Endeavour pulls away.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/355800/1_66_sts123_pullaway.jpg
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven
returned to Earth on Wednesday, making a rare nighttime touchdown to wrap up
"a two-week adventure" at the international space station.
The shuttle swooped through the darkness and landed on NASA's illuminated
runway at 8:39 p.m., an hour after sunset.
"Welcome home, Endeavour," Mission Control radioed. "Congrats to the entire
crew."
Replied Endeavour's commander, Dominic Gorie: "It was a super-rewarding
mission, exciting from the start to the ending."
Returning aboard Endeavour was French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts, who
spent 1 1/2 months aboard the space station, and Japanese astronaut Takao
Doi, who accompanied his country's space station contribution to orbit.
Click to view more photos:
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,3522,00.html
Raising the Kibo lab's storage compartment from Endeavour's payload bay for
attachment to the space station "was a great moment not only for me, but for
Japan," Doi said late Tuesday. It was concrete evidence, finally, of the
Japanese Space Agency's partnership in the longtime station project.
The shuttle's homecoming was a bit delayed.
Endeavour was supposed to land before sunset, but at virtually the last
minute, clouds moved in. As the astronauts took an extra swing around the
planet, the sky cleared enough to satisfy flight controllers and - after
asking Gorie for his opinion - they gave him the green light to head home.
It was only the 22nd space shuttle landing in darkness. Less than one-fifth
of all missions have ended at nighttime; the last one was in 2006.
Endeavour blasted off March 11 - also in darkness - on an ambitious, intense
space station construction mission that had even its commander wondering at
times how everything would go.
In the end, Gorie and his multinational crew accomplished everything they
set out to do during their voyage, which spanned 16 days and 6.5 million
miles (10.46 million kilometers). The astronauts installed the first piece
of Japan's Kibo lab, put together a giant Canadian robot named Dextre,
tested a shuttle repair technique and more.
"This has been a two-week adventure," said Gorie's co-pilot, Gregory
Johnson. "It's been a pleasure and an honor to be on it and although we've
had wonderful events and some great successes ... we're ready to get home."
The space station is now 70 percent complete, thanks to the latest
additions, with a mass of nearly 600,000 pounds (272,160 kilos).
Ten more shuttle flights to the space station - spread over the next two
years - will round out the numbers. NASA hopes to have its share of the
orbiting outpost finished in 2010 and its three shuttles retired, so it can
focus on human expeditions to the moon.
Discovery is scheduled to fly to the space station in late May, carrying up
Japan's enormous Kibo lab. The fuel tank for that mission arrived at Kennedy
Space Center on Wednesday. Subsequent fuel tanks could get backed up,
however, because of all the design changes necessitated by the 2003 Columbia
disaster.
NASA expects to have a better idea in another month whether it can keep the
year's launches on track. Space shuttles are supposed to soar four more
times in 2008, which would mean six missions for the year, a flight rate not
seen since 2001.
Up on the space station, meanwhile, the three occupants are gearing up for
next week's arrival of the European Space Agency's supply ship, Jules Verne.
The unmanned cargo carrier - the first of its kind - rocketed away from
French Guiana this month with a load of food, water and clothes.
Less than a week after that, on April 8, the Russians will launch a fresh
space station crew from Kazakhstan.
NASA could not be more pleased with this space station traffic jam.
Endeavour Returns to Earth, Makes Rare Nighttime Landing
Thursday, March 27, 2008
March 24: The international space station appears very small as space
shuttle Endeavour pulls away.
http://www.foxnews.com/images/355800/1_66_sts123_pullaway.jpg
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven
returned to Earth on Wednesday, making a rare nighttime touchdown to wrap up
"a two-week adventure" at the international space station.
The shuttle swooped through the darkness and landed on NASA's illuminated
runway at 8:39 p.m., an hour after sunset.
"Welcome home, Endeavour," Mission Control radioed. "Congrats to the entire
crew."
Replied Endeavour's commander, Dominic Gorie: "It was a super-rewarding
mission, exciting from the start to the ending."
Returning aboard Endeavour was French Air Force Gen. Leopold Eyharts, who
spent 1 1/2 months aboard the space station, and Japanese astronaut Takao
Doi, who accompanied his country's space station contribution to orbit.
Click to view more photos:
http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,3522,00.html
Raising the Kibo lab's storage compartment from Endeavour's payload bay for
attachment to the space station "was a great moment not only for me, but for
Japan," Doi said late Tuesday. It was concrete evidence, finally, of the
Japanese Space Agency's partnership in the longtime station project.
The shuttle's homecoming was a bit delayed.
Endeavour was supposed to land before sunset, but at virtually the last
minute, clouds moved in. As the astronauts took an extra swing around the
planet, the sky cleared enough to satisfy flight controllers and - after
asking Gorie for his opinion - they gave him the green light to head home.
It was only the 22nd space shuttle landing in darkness. Less than one-fifth
of all missions have ended at nighttime; the last one was in 2006.
Endeavour blasted off March 11 - also in darkness - on an ambitious, intense
space station construction mission that had even its commander wondering at
times how everything would go.
In the end, Gorie and his multinational crew accomplished everything they
set out to do during their voyage, which spanned 16 days and 6.5 million
miles (10.46 million kilometers). The astronauts installed the first piece
of Japan's Kibo lab, put together a giant Canadian robot named Dextre,
tested a shuttle repair technique and more.
"This has been a two-week adventure," said Gorie's co-pilot, Gregory
Johnson. "It's been a pleasure and an honor to be on it and although we've
had wonderful events and some great successes ... we're ready to get home."
The space station is now 70 percent complete, thanks to the latest
additions, with a mass of nearly 600,000 pounds (272,160 kilos).
Ten more shuttle flights to the space station - spread over the next two
years - will round out the numbers. NASA hopes to have its share of the
orbiting outpost finished in 2010 and its three shuttles retired, so it can
focus on human expeditions to the moon.
Discovery is scheduled to fly to the space station in late May, carrying up
Japan's enormous Kibo lab. The fuel tank for that mission arrived at Kennedy
Space Center on Wednesday. Subsequent fuel tanks could get backed up,
however, because of all the design changes necessitated by the 2003 Columbia
disaster.
NASA expects to have a better idea in another month whether it can keep the
year's launches on track. Space shuttles are supposed to soar four more
times in 2008, which would mean six missions for the year, a flight rate not
seen since 2001.
Up on the space station, meanwhile, the three occupants are gearing up for
next week's arrival of the European Space Agency's supply ship, Jules Verne.
The unmanned cargo carrier - the first of its kind - rocketed away from
French Guiana this month with a load of food, water and clothes.
Less than a week after that, on April 8, the Russians will launch a fresh
space station crew from Kazakhstan.
NASA could not be more pleased with this space station traffic jam.
