NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Mission STS-126
Orbiter: Endeavour
Mission: STS-126
Primary Payload: Multi-Purpose Logistics Module
Launched: Nov. 14
Launch Time: 7:55 p.m. EST
Launch Pad: 39A
Mission Duration: 15 days
Landing Date: Nov. 30, 2008
Landing Time: 4:25 p.m. EST
Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Inclination/Altitude: 51.6 degrees/122 nautical miles

STS-126: NASA's Extreme Home Improvement

Image above: Light-filled clouds of smoke and steam roll across Launch Pad 39A as Endeavour hurtles into the night sky. Photo credit: NASA/Rick Wetherington-Tim Powers
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Image above: Endeavour kicks up dust as it touches down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Photo credit: NASA/ Tony Landis, EAFB
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Image above: Endeavour mounted atop a modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft flies over California's Mojave Desert on its way back to Kennedy. Photo credit: NASA/Carla Thomas
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Image above: With Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building in the background, the carrier aircraft with Endeavour piggybacked on top gracefully touches down. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
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The International Space Station can now accommodate more inhabitants thanks to the gargantuan efforts of the STS-126 mission crew. In a beautiful nighttime burst of smoke and clouds, space shuttle Endeavour lifted off Nov. 14, 2008 at 7:25 p.m. EST from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe, Mission Specialists Steve Bowen, Donald Pettit, Shane Kimbrough, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Sandra Magnus delivered the most supplies and equipment ever carried to the station by a single mission.

Four spacewalks totaling 26 hours and 41 minutes were performed with much of the spacewalkers' time devoted to repairing the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint on the right side of the station’s main truss.

There also was a bustle of activity aboard the orbiting outpost as the shuttle and station crews installed new home improvements, including two bedrooms, a water recycling facility and an exercise device.

After nearly 15 days, the Endeavour crew headed home with a new crew member. Greg Chamitoff, who had lived in space for six months, was replaced by Sandra Magnus. Magnus will remain flight engineer aboard the station until her return on shuttle Discovery with the STS-119 crew.

A scheduled Nov. 30 landing at Kennedy was thwarted because of stormy weather over the center. Endeavour was diverted to Edwards Air Force Base on the West Coast and made a picture-perfect landing in the California desert at 4:25 p.m. EST.

Landing at Edwards meant the shuttle would have to take a piggyback ride on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for its return to Kennedy.

With a few stops along the way to wait out some inclement weather in Florida, Endeavour glided in for a touchdown at Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility under a brilliant blue sky Dec. 12, at 2:44 p.m. EST -- officially ending an exceptionally successful mission.