The Endeavour astronauts have been given a green light to proceed with a 3:19 p.m. EST deorbit burn, an engine firing that will put the shuttle and its crew on course for a 4:25 p.m. EST landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Endeavour mission commander Chris Ferguson now is manuevering the shuttle into a tail-first attitude, cargo-bay-to-Earth position -- the so-called deorbit attitude.
The two-minute, 54-second firing of the ship's Orbital Maneuvering System will slow the shuttle by 204 mph, or enough to drop the spacecraft out of orbit and onto an hour-long freefall toward Edwards.
Touchdown will mark the 52nd shuttle landing at the California site.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
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