n exceptionally long mission to the international space station. Endeavour’s touchdown Wednesday night on NASA’s illuminated runway wrapped up a voyage that lasted 16 days and spanned 6.5 million miles (10.5 million kilometers). Mission Control immediately offered up its congratulations.
“It was a super-rewarding mission,” said shuttle commander Dominic Gorie, “exciting from the start to the ending.”
NASA’s space operations chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, watched with pleasure from the landing strip as Europe’s new space station supply ship and then the international space station soared overhead, resembling a pair of twinkling stars. Moments later, Endeavour landed, an hour after sunset.
“I can’t think of a better day, or the better ending of a day, than to see those three wonderful pieces of hardware,” Gersteinmaier said.
Endeavour’s homecoming was a bit delayed.
The space shuttle 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. 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.
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.
On April 8, the Russians will launch a fresh space station crew from Kazakhstan.
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