Endeavour skipper: "It's great to be back"

Three Endeavour astronauts who did not join the crew for a brief post-landing statement are fine, mission commander Chris Ferguson said.

He said mission specialists Don Pettit and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper were keeping an eye on astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who will have a harder time readjusting to gravity's pull after six months in orbit.

Chamitoff just completed a tour as an International Space Station flight engineer. He was replaced as a member of Expedition 18 by Sandra Magnus, who launched with the Endeavour crew on Nov. 14.

"It's great to be back on the ground, and it's great to be in California," Ferguson said from the temporary runway on which Endeavour landed this afternoon at Edwards Air Force Base.

He was joined by pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Steve Bowen and Shane Kimbrough about two hours after touchdown. The group took time to inspect the orbiter, which Ferguson said "seems to have fared entry very well."

He called Endeavour's 16-day mission "extremely successful" and "very ambitious" in its length and goals.

"We improved the station inside and out," he said, referring to the tons of new equipment the shuttle delivered and repairs made during four spacewalks.

Ferguson thanked NASA staff across the country for supporting the mission. He called the Edwards landing a unique opportunity, "but I think it all worked out in the end very well," he said.

NASA ruled out landings at Kennedy Space Center today or Monday because of stormy weather and strong winds.

Senior NASA officials decided not to hold a post-landing press conference at KSC because the landing went so smoothly.

"All right guys, way to go," Ferguson said to Boe, Bowen and Kimbrough as they stepped away from the microphone at Edwards.

It was Ferguson's second complete mission, and the first for the other three.

A welcome home ceremony for the crew is planned Monday afternoon at Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Houston.