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FLORIDA: Space shuttle Endeavour has touched down in Florida following a lengthy mission to install the first component of Japan's Kibo science lab to the International Space Station (ISS).
Endeavour touched down in darkness after mission managers were forced to scrap an earlier attempt to land because of clouds.
After the landing, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Japan was "contributing in a very major way" to the outpost, and described the country's role as "crucial".
Experts will be looking over the shuttle to try to figure out what caused a number of technical problems, including a small ding in one of the shuttle's windows.
Returning with the shuttle was French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, who spent seven weeks aboard the ISS setting up Europe's new Columbus laboratory.
The astronauts, including Japan's Takao Doi, installed a storage room - the first part of Japan's Kibo lab to be attached to the space station.
The main part of the US$2.4 billion Kibo lab will be installed when Discovery flies to the outpost in May.
Kiyotaka Yashiro from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it will take three launches to fully install the lab.
Kibo's installation finally gives Japan a presence among the many nations involved in the ISS.
Kibo marks the culmination of more than twenty years' work by Japan, and it will be fully installed by next year.
The space station is now 70 per cent complete, and NASA plans just ten more shuttle missions before the fleet is decommissioned in 2010. One of those missions will be to service the Hubble Space Telescope. - CNA/ac
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