Shuttle Prepped For Return To KSC

The orbiter Endeavour is being prepped in California for a return trip to Kennedy Space Center and the seven astronauts who landed in the shuttle on Sunday will return to Houston today.

Endeavour mission commander Chris Ferguson and his crew will have some words prior to their departure from Edwards Air Force Base, and we'll be webcasting NASA TV coverage of the event at 2 p.m. EST today. A videotaped recording of the crew's comments prior to departure will be broadcast at that time. Simply click the NASA TV box at the righthand side of this page to launch our NASA TV viewer.

NASA contractor technicians today are taking part in a drill that includes offloading hazardous residual propellants from the tanks that supply the shuttle's twin orbital manuevering engines, 44 nose-and-tail steering jets and the Auxiliary Power Units that are used to steer the shuttle's liquid-fueled main engines during ascent and operate its aerosurfaces, landing gear, brakes and nosewheel steering system during atmospheric reentry and landing.

The orbiter ultimately will be towed to a Mate-Demate Device -- a large gantry-like steel structure with hoists that raise the orbiter into the air so a 747 carrier aircraft can be positioned below it. The orbiter then will be bolted to the top of the aircraft for a piggyback ride back to KSC.

A preliminary look at Endeavour shows that the orbiter came through the atmospheric reentry and landing on Runway 04 at Edwards in very good shape. Damage to tiles on the underside of the orbiter was minimal.

NASA officials say it will take five to seven days to get the orbiter ready for the cross-country flight back to NASA's prime launch operations center. Weather permitting, the carrier aircraft and Endeavour should be back on the Space Coast early next week.

You can click to enlarge and save the top two NASA TV images grabbed by Florida Today space reporter James Dean after the shuttle landing at 4:25 p.m. EST Sunday. The third image of the Mate-Demate Device is from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards.

Below, you can also click to enlarge each of the Associated Press photos of the landing. Photo credits: AP/Mark J. Terrill: