The space shuttle Endeavour landed at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Friday carrying a seven-member crew of US, Canadian and Japanese astronauts. The landing at 1448 GMT marked the end of the 17-day mission that saw the completion of the Japanese laboratory on the International Space Station. There were no problems during the landing and the shuttle appeared to be in good condition, NASA officials said later. The Endeavour brought an external platform to the station that was installed on the Japanese Kibo laboratory during the first of the mission's five spacewalks. The porch will expose experiments to the extremities of space. Japanese space agency Jaxa President Keiji Tachikawa told reporters the completion of Kibo was "very important in our country" and would enable the completion of scientific research. During Endeavour's mission, astronauts used robotic arms to place an X-ray camera and a device to study cosmic dust on the porch, alongside a communication device to send data between the space station and ground crews in Japan. A spacewalk also saw the installation of video cameras on Kibo's porch. The landing also marked the return of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata to Earth after spending four months as a long-term ISS crew member. US astronaut Tim Kopra has replaced Wakata on the six-member ISS permanent crew.
