Posted: Thu, May 10, 2001, 10:14 AM ET (1414 GMT)
The space shuttle Endeavour returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida Wednesday atop a 747, a little over a week after landing in California. The 747 aircraft, with Endeavour attached, landed at KSC just after 2 pm EDT (1800 GMT), completing a two-day transcontinental ferry flight. The 747 and shuttle left Edwards Air Force Base Tuesday and, after a refueling stop at an Air Force base in Oklahoma, spent the night at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas before completing the return flight to KSC on Wednesday. The shuttle landed at Edwards on May 1 after poor weather prevented the orbiter from landing at KSC as preferred. Ferrying the shuttle from California to Florida costs about $1 million and adds about a week to the processing time between flights, although the added time should not be a major issue as Endeavour's next flight, STS-108, is not slated for launch until late November.

Related Links:

•  Shuttle status report for May 9