Canuck astronaut Williams recounts 'spectacular beauty'

After travellingmore thaneight million kilometres, the space shuttle Endeavour landed exactly on time Tuesday, touching down safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:32 p.m. ET.

Endeavour's crew, which includes Canadian astronaut Dave Williams, landed a day early because of NASA's concerns about the threat Hurricane Dean could pose to Mission Control.

At a post-landing news conference from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday evening, Williams spoke colourfully about his experiences in orbit, describing the force of rocketing into space in just 8½minutes from a launch pad on Earth, and about the"breathtaking" views from the shuttle.

"You get outside and you're doing a spacewalk and you can see a quarter of the planet right in front of you, and you see these sunrises and sunsets every 45 minutes," he said.

Asked to turn his head whileperforming a spacewalk, Williams said, hewas able to watchin awe as a monstrous Hurricane Dean brewed over the Caribbean.

"These are moments that you truly take with you," he said.

"It's really that human experience of being there, looking at the spectacular beauty of the world."

Theseven crew members woke early Tuesday to Simon and Garfunkel's Homeward Bound, a tribute from their families.

Re-entry occurred at approximately 11 a.m., with the shuttle some 121 kilometres above the Pacific Ocean. Touchdown occurred on schedule and the shuttle suffered no serious damage as a result of damaged tiles that caused much concern during Endeavour's mission.

Small nick in heat shield

The successful landing put to rest some fears abouta small nick in the shuttle's heat-shield tiles caused by a piece of foam that broke away from Endeavour's fuel tank during launch. The astronauts used a laser-tipped boom to hunt for possible micrometeorite damage to the shuttle's wing and nose that might have occurred during the nine days the shuttle was docked to the space station.

On Monday, NASA analyzed close-up laser scans of Endeavour's wings and nose and cleared the shuttle for re-entry.

At an earlierpress conference after the landing, NASA administrator Michael Griffin appeared to downplay the importance of the damaged tile. After making several prepared remarks about the crew and progress on the International Space Station, he added, "and by the way, the tile did very well on re-entry."

When asked to elaborate, Griffin said other aspects of the mission should have gotten more attention.

The shuttle "had one kind of ugly ding," he said."I would have liked to see the media pay more attention to what kind of accomplishment [the ISS] is."

Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach praised the shuttle and ground crew on the shuttle's condition.

"It's in outstanding condition," he said. "It looked like a pristine vehicle."

The shuttle will undergo further assessment to evaluate the tile damage.

Mission objectives accomplished

NASA spokesman Bill Jeffs told CBC News that no major activities planned for mission STS-118 were missed, even though the mission ended a day earlier than expected.

He added that the journey had been extended by three days after a successful construction project on the space station that allowed the shuttle to stay in orbit longer, so the crew had the time it needed to complete the major mission objectives before Tuesday's landing.

Mission managers decided Saturday to play it safe and bring Endeavour back a day early because of the hurricane. NASA could have rushed a skeleton flight control team from Houston to Cape Canaveral, Fla., and had the shuttle land there. But it was reluctant to do so, as that would mean using a scaled-down team.

Bad weather on Earth rarely cuts shuttle missions short. Instead, it often has the opposite effect, keeping shuttles in orbit longer.

Williams set Canadian record for spacewalks

NASA says the mission was a success and is pleased with the crew's work.

The ISS "isover60 per cent complete," Griffin said. "I find it hard to look at pictures and notthink that this is one of the most awesome accomplishments of mankind."

Williams performed three spacewalks during this mission, setting a Canadian record for number of spacewalks, topping Chris Hadfield, who performed two in 2001. He spent 17 hours, 47 minutes outside the space station during his three spacewalks, bettering Hadfield's total spacewalk time of 14 hours and 56 minutes in 2001.

Alain Boisvert, president of the Canadian Space Agency, said Williams "is in great shape and great spirits" following his return to Earth.

'Higher learning'

Mission Control welcomed the crew home, particularly noting NASA's newest milestone: the safe return of Barbara Morgan, the first Educator Astronaut.

"You've given a new meaning to the term 'higher learning,' " Mission Control remarked.

Morgan trained with space shuttle Challenger astronaut Christa McAuliffe to participate in the Teacher in Space program in 1984.

McAuliffe and six astronauts died when the shuttle exploded in flight in January 1986. The Teacher in Space Project was suspended, but Morgan, McAuliffe's backup for the Challenger mission, started in the newly created Educator Astronaut Project in 1998.

'The room still spins a little'

Morgan taught several interactive lessons from the shuttle, including a physics lesson and question-and-answer period with Saskatchewan students on Monday.

Morgan was not seen exiting the shuttle with the rest of the crew and Griffin said she was feeling slightly ill after her first space flight.

"The room still spins a little, but that's OK," Morgan told reporters at a news conference later Tuesday.

"Don't get me wrong, this isn't that bad, this is just something that will go away," she said of her experience so far adjusting from the weightlessness of being in orbit.

"It's actually pretty interesting, if you could be in my body."

Griffin had said Morgan was "simply feeling a little under the weather" and was not able to stand up or walk in the Florida heat.