Asia-Pacific News
Endeavour returns to Earth after 17-day mission available (1st Lead)
Jul 31, 2009, 14:55 GMT
Washington - The space shuttle Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Friday carrying a seven-member crew of US, Canadian and Japanese astronauts.
The landing at 1448 GMT marked the end of the 17-day mission that saw the completion of the Japanese laboratory on the International Space Station.
The Endeavour brought an external platform to the station that was installed on the Japanese Kibo laboratory during the first of the mission's five spacewalks. The porch will expose experiments to the extremities of space.
Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata returned to Earth aboard Endeavour after spending four months as a long-term ISS crew member. US astronaut Tim Kopra has replaced Wakata on the six-member ISS permanent crew.
The mission also saw robotic work to install experiments on the new porch and spacewalks to replace batteries on one of the station's solar panels.
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