Document text
--> --> Endeavour returns to earth after diverting from Florida By Andrew Bridges AP Science Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Shooed from rainy Florida, space shuttle Endeavour and its seven-man crew landed in California today after installing a billion-dollar robot arm for the international space station. Endeavour touched down at 9:10 a.m. "Welcome back after a tremendously successful mission taking the arm to space," Mission Control said as soon as the shuttle rolled to a stop. "It's great to be back," commander Kent Rominger replied. Mission Control waved Endeavour off two chances to return to Cape Canaveral, Fla., because of rain, wind and clouds, and decided to take advantage of clear skies and light wind at the backup landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. The weather in Florida was not expected to improve throughout the week. It was a disappointment for Rominger and his crew; their families were waiting for them at Cape Canaveral. This was the second time in three months that a space shuttle was diverted to Edwards because of bad weather in Florida. Atlantis ended up there in February, also following a space station construction mission. NASA prefers to land in Florida to save time and money. It costs as much as $1 million to send the shuttle on a cross-country trip atop a jumbo jet when it lands in California. Endeavour launched April 19 on the mission to install and wire up the robot arm at the station, called Alpha. After the crew met those objectives, shutdowns of computers critical to operating the new arm postponed testing it until Saturday and kept Endeavour at the station an extra day. More than 500 flight controllers and engineers at Mission Control worked continuously to bring the main computer's two backups back to life. The main machine and one backup were fully functional today and a third was working without a good hard drive. The Canadian-built arm, with two hands and seven joints, will be the station's high-tech construction crane, adding pieces to the 250-mile-high complex over the next 15 to 20 years. "This is hard what we're doing and we have been 100 percent successful because of all the hard work we put in beforehand and all the tremendous amount of work that was done on the ground," said Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who installed the arm during two spacewalks with U.S. astronaut Scott Parazynski. Endeavour undocked Sunday, clearing the way for a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to dock, which will serve as a lifeboat at the station. The Soyuz delivered two Russian cosmonauts and the world's first space tourist, California millionaire Dennis Tito, who will return to Earth in an older Soyuz already docked at the station. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing