Family Life

02.22.10 | FL News Team

The Space Shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth on Sunday. Despite a day of nasty weather, the shuttle touched down safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:20 p.m., Eastern time. The rare night landing wrapped up Endeavour's two-week construction mission to the International Space Station. Astronauts conducted three spacewalks to install the last major components of the ISS, a 100-billion-dollar project involving 16 nations that has been in the works since 1998. Endeavour delivered the new Tranquility node, which will serve as a second set of living quarters for the space station crew. The six-member shuttle crew also helped attach a seven-window observation deck that will give astronauts a nearly 360-degree view of the cosmos. There are just four flights left on the schedule before NASA retires the space shuttle fleet later this year. The next mission will bring spare parts and science experiments to the ISS. It is scheduled to blast off in April.

 Once the NASA shuttle fleet is retired, China and Russia will be the only governments left with the ability to carry people into space. President Obama has scrapped plans for another manned mission to the moon due to cost concerns and has instead directed NASA to focus on creating technologies that could one day put a person on Mars. The U.S. government is also planning to seed development of commercial space taxis.