Endeavour lands safely at sunrise

May 29, 1996
Web posted at: 7:45 a.m. EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- The 10-day mission of space shuttle Endeavour ended successfully at 7:09 a.m. (1109 GMT) Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center. (1M QuickTime movie)

Patchy ground fog and clouds over the landing site had threatened to delay the landing or send the six crew members to Edwards Air Force Base, California. But the weather cleared, and Mission Control in Houston gave the go-ahead for a Florida touchdown.

The 30th space shuttle landing in Florida and the third this year came after an hour-long descent into the Earth's atmosphere. (254K AIFF or WAV sound) The astronauts fired twin braking rockets at 6:09 a.m. EDT (1009 GMT), as the shuttle flew tail-first over Australia to drop the spaceship out of orbit.

In its final half-hour of flight, the eastward-moving Endeavour passed over the San Francisco Bay area in California, crossing portions of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. The shuttle was still traveling at 3,600 miles an hour as it descended over central Florida and headed toward its landing site after 161 orbits.(826K QuickTime movie)

Mission accomplished

NASA's newest shuttle rocketed into orbit May 19. The crew accomplished its first major task the next day when it set free a satellite carrying a huge inflatable antenna.

In another test of less expensive equipment, the crew ejected a small lopsided satellite a week ago to determine whether it could fly straight without jet thrusters. The astronauts visited the 80-pound, wastebasket-sized craft three times over five days to check its stability.

They observed it from within 2,000 feet and discovered it was traveling like a dart with its heavy end forward, as predicted, and wobbled less each time. The satellite was left in orbit and is expected to burn up by January.

The crew -- made up of an Australian-born rookie and five veterans -- also tended to crystal growth, metals and navigation experiments and tried out a new shuttle soda dispenser. The astronauts worked with thousands of embryonic sea urchins, starfish and blue clams.

What's next

The Endeavour crew was scheduled to leave the craft about an hour after completing post-landing duties. A news conference was tentatively scheduled for about six hours after landing.

Endeavour will spend eight months undergoing modifications and refurbishment. Its next mission, scheduled for December 1997, will be to start putting together NASA's international space station. Columbia and seven astronauts are scheduled to blast off June 20 on the next shuttle flight.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Endeavour lands safely at sunrise

Mission accomplished

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