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Smooth touchdown for Endeavour

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE (California): Space shuttle Endeavour slipped out of a brilliant desert sky and touched down safely in California after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station.

Stormy weather at the shuttle’s main Florida landing site forced controllers to divert Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts across the country to Edwards Air Force Base, where it glided to Earth on Sunday. “It’s great to be back on the ground, and it’s great to be in California,” said commander Christopher Ferguson, standing with three of his crew members on the tarmac near the shuttle. The shuttle programme’s 124th mission remodelled the space station, doubled its crew capacity to six and repaired a rotating joint on a solar wing. Endeavour delivered a new bathroom, kitchenette, exercise machine, sleeping quarters and a recycling system that converts astronauts’ urine and sweat into drinking water. The mission was not without setbacks. The urine converter required extra tinkering. — AP

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