By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts on the U.S.space shuttle Endeavour closed their spaceship's cargo doors onWednesday to prepare for a homecoming in Florida afterdelivering a Japanese storage room and a Canadian robot to theInternational Space Station.
Touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center was scheduled for7:05 p.m. EDT (11:05 p.m. British time), just 33 minutes beforesundown.
"This has been a two-week adventure and it's been apleasure and honour to be on it," Endeavour pilot Greg Johnsonradioed to Mission Control in Houston after the crew's wake-upcall. "In a bittersweet way, we're ready to get home."
NASA expected no problems from the weather, with clearskies and light winds forecast at the seaside spaceport.
"We think it's looking really nice to get you home on thefirst opportunity," astronaut Jim Dutton from Mission Controlin Houston told the crew.
Technical glitches that surfaced during Endeavour's 16-dayflight, including a tiny nick in one of the cockpit windows,were likewise not expected to be an issue for landing, saidflight director Richard Jones.
Endeavour returns with French astronaut Leopold Eyharts,who spent seven weeks aboard the station setting up Europe'snew Columbus laboratory.
His stay was shorter than planned due to delays launchingNASA's last shuttle mission, which carried the lab and Eyhartsinto orbit. Originally scheduled to fly in December, Atlantisended up flying in February.
In an interview on Tuesday evening, Eyharts said his timeaboard the station was jam-packed and though he would haveliked to stay longer, he was ready to come home.
"It was very tiring," he said. "So I am happy to comeback."
Eyharts' replacement, NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, willserve as the station's flight engineer until the shuttleDiscovery flies to the outpost in May with the main part ofJapan's tour-bus-sized laboratory, Kibo. A storage room filledwith equipment for Kibo was one of the primary payloads aboardEndeavour, which spent 12 days at the station.
The module's installation finally gave Japan a presence onthe station and meant that all 15 partner nations arerepresented on the $100 billion (49.8 billion pound)outpost,now 70 percent complete.
The visiting shuttle crew also assembled a Canadian-mademaintenance robot named Dextre that extended the span of thestation's crane to 30 feet (9 metres) and added almost a humantouch for handling objects as small as a phone book.
NASA wanted the $209 million robot to cut down the amountof time needed for risky spacewalks to maintain the station.
NASA plans 10 more shuttle missions to construct and supplythe station before the space shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.It also has a shuttle mission scheduled this year to upgradethe Hubble Space Telescope.
(Editing by Jane Sutton and Mohammad Zargham)
