NASA’s Shuttle Endeavour landed smoothly at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning, wrapping up its final mission to space before becoming the second last US shuttle to retire.
Endeavour, which delivered a pioneering physics experiment to the International Space Station, touched down on the runway at 7.35am Irish time.
It is the second of US space agency NASA's three spaceships being retired this year. Sister ship Atlantis is scheduled to launch on the final planned shuttle mission on 8 July.
The deorbit burn began on time at 1.29am (0529 GMT), with shuttle commander Mark Kelly putting on the brakes for two minutes, 38 seconds.
That was just enough time to slow the shuttle by 320km/h to a speed of about 28,000km/h, allowing it to leave orbit.
The shuttle began its fiery re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere at 7.03am Irish time, NASA said.
As with past shuttle missions, the vessel had no engine power when it returned to Earth, so Kelly had to manoeuvre it so that it glided onto the runway at Kennedy Space Center.
The 16-day mission to the International Space Station is the last one for the shuttle Endeavour and the penultimate flight for the 30-year-old US shuttle programme, which is to end after Atlantis launches on 8 July.
