Shuttle Landing, astronauts eye Friday landing

Shuttle Landing, The multinational crew of the space shuttle Endeavour prepared to return to Earth on Friday, wrapping up a marathon mission to the International Space Station.
There was only a slight chance that rain showers near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center runway in Florida might force the seven-member crew to spend an extra day in orbit, according to forecasters.
“It’s time to come back,” said Endeavour commander Mark Polanski, as the astronauts prepared the ship for its high speed descent.
“We have accomplished our primary objectives successfully.”
Endeavour has two opportunities to touchdown Friday, at 10:48am (1448 GMT) and 12:22 pm (1622 GMT).
NASA said the shuttle crew was awakened at 2:03 am eastern daylight time (0603 GMT) by the song “Beautiful Day” performed by the band U2, ahead of the planned trip home.
Touchdown would end a long sojourn, during which the astronauts installed the final piece of Japan’s Kibo science laboratory and delivered spare parts crucial to the space station’s future operations.
The flight also saw a record number of astronauts aboard the 220-mile high orbital outpost, representing Europe, Japan, Canada Russia and the United States.
Inspections of the shuttle’s fragile heat shielding revealed no major damage after the long flight, according to Bryan Lunney, the NASA flight director, who will supervise landing operations from Mission Control.
“The vehicle is in great shape,” he said. Kibo, the largest and best equipped of the space station’s major experiment facilities, required three shuttle missions over 16 months to assemble.
Endeavour’s crew carried out the last of the construction by joining a new external experiment platform to Japan’s primary science enclosure and separate stowage module.
The long shuttle flight was punctuated by moments of drama and some humor.
Four of the astronauts conducted a record-tying five spacewalks, including one outing that had to be cut short when one of the astronauts registered higher than expected readings of carbon dioxide inside his space suit, in what proved to be a temporary setback.
The spacewalkers went on to replace a half-dozen batteries in the station’s oldest power storage module, ensuring electricity for crucial life support systems and science experiments as the orbital outpost ages.
American Tim Kopra, who launched aboard Endeavour, will stay at the space outpost at least until early September. He replaced Koichi Wakata, Japan’s first long-duration astronaut.