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Shuttle Endeavour Crew Homeward Bound

By Jose Fernandez on Mar 23rd, 2008 in Space | Add story link to StumbleUpon

shuttle-endeavour-crew-homeward-bound.jpgThe crew of the space shuttle Endeavour is almost ready to come back down to Earth after nearly two weeks in orbit. The spacecraft will undock from the station at 7:56 p.m. EDT Monday and begin its journey back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Landing is set for Wednesday at 7:01 p.m. EDT.

It’s been a busy mission for the shuttle crew, whose work required five spacewalks. They put together a Canadian-built maintenance robot called Dextre and installed an attic-like storage module for Japan’s Kibo station lab. They also carried a new crew member to the space station, and recorded the longest docked time yet for a NASA shuttle.

NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman will stay behind to replace French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who comes home with the shuttle’s crew after just more than a month at the station with the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory that was installed in February.

Endeavour commander Dominic Gorie and his six crewmates enjoyed a half-day off on Easter Sunday before NASA’s Johnson Space Center roused the crew at 12:28 p.m. ET with the Newsboys song “I Am Free.” The crew spent the afternoon packing away tools and transferring cargo between the orbiter and the lab. They also learned from engineers at Mission Control that the shuttle passed its heat shield inspection.

NASA is already preparing for the next shuttle launch. Discovery is set to blast-off on May 25.

Photo Credit: NASA-TV, STS-123 Mission Specialist Mike Foreman works in the U.S. Quest airlock the day after completing the mission’s fifth spacewalk.

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