Astronauts Celebrate Successful Mission

March 24, 2008 -- To Dominic Gorie, commander of the shuttle Endeavour, spaceflight has a lot in common with competing in the NCAA basketball tournament.

So far his crew has muscled through a daunting to-do list, including five spacewalks to build a giant robot and install the first segment of a Japanese lab. But the championship would be a safe landing back at Kennedy Space Center.

"We've won the first five games," Gorie said. "We've got a couple more to go for undocking and landing, but we've got a great winning team. I'm really, really happy with them."

Endeavour's crew is scheduled to close the hatches between their ship and the International Space Station on Monday afternoon as they prepare for undocking a few hours later. The shuttle is scheduled to land in Florida on Wednesday night.

Although shuttle crews often wish for more time at the orbiting complex, astronaut Michael Foreman said some his colleagues were ready to wrap up their record-setting mission.

Endeavour blasted off on March 11 to begin the longest planned shuttle flight to the space station ever. The five spacewalks set another record for a space station construction mission.

"We've had a really great time up here," Foreman said. "But, yeah, I think a few of us are thinking about getting back to planet Earth."