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28.03.2008 00:04
CET
STS-123 Update
A press briefing was held at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center in Florida with the returning STS-123
mission crew Thursday afternoon.
Endeavour Commander Dominic Gorie, talked about the
storybook ending to an awesome mission and thanked his crew
for the difficult work they accomplished.
"We've had one of the most remarkable missions I could have
ever imagined," said Gorie.
"The weather last night wouldn't quite cooperate on the
first opportunity, but I think it was destiny because we had
trained for a night landing, and that's what we were going
to do."
Gorie said the five spacewalks were an ambitious achievement
and again praised his crew for their hard work.
Pilot Gregory H. Johnson was asked about his best memory of
the mission and he said, "The thing that jumps out to me is
the launch."
"After almost 10 years of training … I could have never
imaged how it was going to be until we actually did it."
This was Johnson's first spaceflight.
Mission Specialist Robert Behnken, also made his first
flight into space on Endeavour. "The EVAs … I got to
translate quite a bit around the space station," said
Behnken. "I got to climb on the Columbus module to install
an experiment on the end of it."
"The views I was able to see looking down into the shuttle,
looking down on the Earth, was just remarkable for me."
After 16 days in space and 250 orbits of the Earth, space
shuttle Endeavour touched down at 8:39 p.m. EDT Wednesday at
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
With the STS-123 mission concluded, the crew of Endeavour
flew back to Houston for a homecoming celebration at
Ellington Field and reunion with their family and friends.
All Media by NASA
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