Endeavour and Crew Back Home Safely (Video)

By Nancy Atkinson - March 27, 2008 at 9:39 AM UTC | Space Exploration
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After 16 days in space and 250 orbits of the Earth, space shuttle Endeavour touched down at Wednesday evening at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing the STS-123 mission to a flawless end. The mission launched in darkness on March 11, and returned home with a rare night landing â€" and both were spectacular sights. For those of you keeping score at home, Endeavour's main gear touchdown took place at 8:39:08 p.m. EDT at a mission elapsed time of 15 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds.

Mission managers said the crew was in good health and spirits. "I got to talk to the crew, and the crew was just having a fantastic time reflecting on their mission and looking up at their vehicle that just landed," said Shuttle Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "They were glad to be home, very proud of the work they did, and we're very proud of the work they did, too."

On board Endeavour were Mission Specialists Takao Doi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Robert L. Behnken, and Rick Linnehan; Pilot Gregory H. Johnson; Commander Dominic Gorie; and Mission Specialist Mike Foreman, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Léopold Eyharts, who returned to Earth aboard Endeavour after almost 50 days in space on the International Space Station. The 16 day mission was one of the longest space shuttle missions, with 5 spacewalks for station construction that included attaching a Japanese Pressurized Module and putting together Dextre, a robotic handyman that will be available to assist in station construction and maintenence tasks.

If you missed seeing the landing last night, here's a

link to video from NASA

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com