Endeavour Returns to Earth
Overnight landing brings an end to NASA's penultimate shuttle mission.
| Posted Wednesday, June 1, 2011, at 8:51 AM
The Endeavour space shuttle returned safely to Earth early Wednesday, ending the penultimate mission in NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program.
The 16-day mission, which included the installation of a $2 billion cosmic ray detector at the International Space Station, was the last for Endeavour. After decommissioning, the shuttle will be housed at a museum in California.
“It’s sad to see her land for the last time, but she had a great legacy,” said Commander Mark Kelly, who led the shuttle’s six-person crew.
Kelly’s wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, did not travel to Cape Canaveral, Fla., to witness the landing, the Associated Press reports. Instead she remained in Houston where she is rehabilitating from a gunshot wound to the head that nearly killed her earlier this year. She did, however, attend the shuttle’s launch last month.
NASA’s final space shuttle mission is set for later this summer, when Atlantis blasts off to deliver a final load of U.S. supplies to the space station. Liftoff is currently set for July 8. On Wednesday, NASA began moving the shuttle toward the launch pad.
Watch Endeavour’s landing below:
