(CNN) — The house shuttle Endeavor landed safely Sunday afternoon at Edwards Air Pressure Base in California after NASA rejected two touchdown alternatives in Florida due to dangerous climate.
Endeavor plans to land Sunday at Edwards Air Pressure Base in California.
The shuttle, led by Commander Christopher Ferguson, touched down at 1:25 p.m., ending a mission that lasted greater than two weeks.
Wind, rain and reviews of thunderstorms inside 30 miles of the shuttle touchdown facility at Florida’s Kennedy Area Heart prompted NASA to cancel touchdown makes an attempt there. They had been scheduled for 1:19 PM and a pair of:54 PM ET.
After figuring out that Monday’s climate forecast at Kennedy Area Heart was equally unpromising, flight controllers determined they’d attempt to land the shuttle and its seven astronauts at Edwards Air Pressure Base, about 100 miles from Los Angeles, California, the place the Sunday’s forecast was sunny.
Flight controllers favor to land on the Kennedy Area Heart due to the associated fee and schedule. NASA has estimated that it prices about $1.7 million to take a shuttle from California to the Kennedy Area Heart. Watch Endeavor’s Sunday touchdown in California »
It additionally takes at the very least per week to organize the shuttle for the journey, however the schedule isn’t an enormous issue for Endeavour; he isn’t scheduled to fly once more till Could.
effortThe 15-day mission to the Worldwide Area Station started on November 14 and included 4 spacewalks.
Throughout that point, the crew introduced in key items — together with train gear, extra sleeping beds and a urine recycling system — for a undertaking to double the station’s capability from three inside astronauts to 6.
The recycling system was put in to transform the urine and sweat of the astronauts into ingesting water.
Different modules are scheduled to reach on a February shuttle flight. The objective of increasing the station’s capability to 6 astronauts is anticipated to be reached in the summertime.
The crew additionally labored on a joint that helps generate energy for the house station. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen spent hours cleansing and lubricating the Photo voltaic Alpha rotary joint, which is designed to permit the photo voltaic panels on the left facet of the station to rotate and observe the solar.

The astronauts additionally eliminated and changed a number of units of bearings.
The mission went as deliberate, regardless of a small disruption to the primary spacewalk when a grease gun within the Stefanyshyn-Piper software bag escaped, coating the complete inside with a movie of lubricant. As she tried to wash it up, the bag, containing $100,000 price of instruments, floated away.
CNN’s Kate Tobin and Miles O’Brien contributed to this report.
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