CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida—The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour returned to Florida on Wednesday, capping a milestone flight that brought Japan fully into the International Space Station partnership with the delivery of the first part of its research laboratory.
Unexpected clouds at the Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to skip Endeavour's first landing opportunity and delay touchdown until 8:39 p.m. EDT, ending the 122nd shuttle mission in darkness, just as it began 16 days ago.
The shuttle dropped off at the space station a storage room for Japan's elaborate Kibo laboratory, as well as a Canadian robot to help astronauts maintain the $100 billion outpost.
Endeavour brought back space station flight engineer Leopold Eyharts, who spend seven weeks aloft to set up a European laboratory, called Columbus, which was delivered on the last shuttle mission in February.
NASA hopes to complete three more missions to the space station this year and a servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope, as it whittles down an 11-flight manifest that must be finished by the time the shuttles are retired in 2010.
Endeavour stayed at the station for 12 days, longer than any previous mission, and its astronauts conducted five spacewalks to install Kibo's storage room, assemble the massive Dextre maintenance robot and prepare the complex for the next wave of construction.
NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman replaced Eyharts during the mission and will stay on the station until the shuttle Discovery visits in late May, carrying the main section of the Kibo lab.
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