Submitted by Arthur - N1ORC
Endeavour descended to a flawless landing at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida this afternoon, ending four days of landing attempts thwarted by
bad weather and returning home an International Space Station crew that
spent 185 days in space.
STS-113 MCC Status Report #28
Saturday, December 7, 2002 - 2 p.m. CST
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Endeavour descended to a flawless landing at the Kennedy Space Center in
Florida this afternoon, ending four days of landing attempts thwarted by
bad weather and returning home an International Space Station crew that
spent 185 days in space.

Commander Jim Wetherbee guided Endeavour to a touchdown on KSC's shuttle
runway at 1:37 p.m. Central, completing a 5.74-million-mile journey that
added a new segment to the space station's growing backbone and exchanged
resident space station crews. Endeavour's landing completed the final
shuttle mission of the year and brought home the station's Expedition
Five crew -- Commander Valery Korzun, Science Officer Peggy Whitson and
Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev. The Expedition Six crew -- Commander Ken
Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai
Budarin -- remain on the International Space Station, beginning a
three-month stay. Ending a 14-day flight aboard Endeavour today were
Wetherbee, Shuttle Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike
Lopez-Alegria and John Herrington.

Official landing times for Endeavour include main gear touchdown at
1:37:12 p.m. Central which equates to 13 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes and
25 seconds Mission Elapsed Time. Nose gear touch down occurred at 1:37:23
p.m. Central or 13 days, 18 hours, 47 minutes and 36 seconds Mission
Elapsed Time. Wheels stop for Endeavour occurred at 1:38:25 p.m. Central
or 13 days, 18 hours, 48 minutes and 38 seconds Mission Elapsed Time.

The Expedition Five crew and Endeavour's crew will return to Houston's
Ellington Field on Monday, December 9. A welcome home ceremony is planned
beginning at 3 p.m. Central at Hangar 990.