Shuttle crew begins journey home
HOUSTON (AP) - March 25, 2008 The space shuttle is scheduled to land on Wednesday at the
Kennedy Space Center, ending a record-setting mission to the
orbiting outpost. Endeavour's astronauts will spend Tuesday
preparing their ship for touchdown.
Pilot Gregory Johnson backed Endeavour away from the space
station on Monday evening, ending 12 days of linked flight. He then
guided the shuttle through a loop around the orbiting complex so
the crew could take pictures of its new look.
Endeavour's astronauts built a giant handyman robot and
installed the first segment of Japan's Kibo lab during their stay
at the station.
"We really appreciate everything you've done for us over the
last couple of weeks," station commander Peggy Whitson radioed
Endeavour as the shuttle pulled away. "Thanks a bunch."
The 10 space travelers performed a record-tying five spacewalks
to put together the space station robot, attach the new Japanese
compartment and complete other chores.
Flight director Mike Moses thanked the astronauts and the ground
crew for a job well done.
"I am immensely proud of the teams, all the teams, that got us
to this point," he said.
NASA's next shuttle mission is set for late May, when Discovery
will deliver the enormous Japanese lab Kibo, which means hope.
Endeavour delivered a storage compartment for the lab.
But the Hubble Space Telescope mission, at the end of August,
might wind up being postponed because of a slowdown in shuttle
fuel-tank production.
Only now, five years after the Columbia accident, are fuel tanks
and their insulating foam skin being built from scratch, said LeRoy
Cain, chairman of the mission management team.
The fuel tank used to propel Endeavour into orbit on March 11
was the last one that was already in production when Columbia was
destroyed, and so it was easier to make the post-accident safety
changes.
These changes, most if not all of them involving foam, took time
to refine. NASA also became bogged down by a recurring fuel-gauge
problem that finally was resolved a few months ago.
"We're on a learning curve here," Cain said.
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