On Sunday, NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, made a safe landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The 124th space shuttle mission and the 22nd flight for the Endeavour were marked by the STS-126 mission. It gave astronauts a chance to repair parts of the International Space Station (ISS), so it can house six crew members on a long-term missions next year.

The flight was commanded by Chris Ferguson and others on board were pilot Eric Boe, mission specialists Donald Pettit, Steve Bowen, Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Shane Kimbrough, and Sandra Magnus.

Crewmembers installed a water recovery system, added sleeping quarters, put in a second toilet and set up exercise equipment during the 27th shuttle mission to the ISS. In order to install hardware and perform maintenance on the ISS's two Solar Alpha Rotary Joints, which allow its solar arrays to track the sun, they embarked on four spacewalks.

Due to the bad weather, the crew could not return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as planned. Within the next seven to 10 days, a modified 747 jumbo jet will return the Endeavour from California to Florida. The next flight of Endeavour is planned for May 2009.

Discovery is to be unveiled for the STS-119 mission on Feb. 12. This 14-day flight will be commanded by Lee Archambault, and is likely to include four spacewalks. Pilot Tony Antonelli and mission specialists John Phillips, Steve Swanson, Joseph Acaba, and Richard Arnold, are preparing for that flight. They would also be joined by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata to replace Magnus as the flight engineer.