spacetoday.net: Shuttle makes delayed landing in Florida

Posted: Thu, Mar 27, 2008, 12:37 AM ET (0437 GMT)
STS-123: landing (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely in Florida Wednesday evening, one orbit later than planned because of weather issues. Endeavour touched down at the Kennedy Space Center's runway at 8:39 pm EDT Wednesday (0039 GMT Thursday), concluding the 16-day STS-123 mission. The first landing attempt, one orbit and about 90 minutes earlier, was waved off because of low clouds in the area, but conditions cleared enough to permit the landing in the second and final landing window of the day. The landing brought to an end a mission that saw the successful delivery and installation of part of the Japanese Kibo laboratory and the Canadian-built Dextre robotic manipulator on the ISS. Five spacewalks took place during the mission, setting a record for a shuttle mission to the station. The shuttle also returned with a European astronaut, Leopold Eyharts, who spent a month and a half on the ISS setting up the Columbus lab module brought to the station on the previous shuttle mission; he was replaced by NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman. The next shuttle mission, STS-124, is tentatively scheduled for May 25.