Astronauts, shuttle ready for return to Earth
(Updates with astronaut quotes)
By Jeff Franks
HOUSTON, March 25 (Reuters) - Astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour said on Tuesday they and their ship were ready to come home as they neared the end of a mission that brought the first Japanese module to the International Space Station.
Endeavour, which launched on March 11, was scheduled to land on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The seven crewmembers spent the day stowing gear and testing flight systems in preparation for their fiery descent to Earth.
"The orbiter has performed marvelously this whole flight and we don't have any concerns about it at all," shuttle commander Dominic Gorie said in a press interview from space.
NASA officials said the shuttle windshield had a small nick in it, possibly caused by space debris, but posed no threat to shuttle safety.
French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, coming back on Endeavour after 1-1/2 months aboard the space station, said he was sad to leave space, but looking forward to returning home.
"What I am missing most right now is maybe a small glass of red wine," he said.
Weather forecasts looked good for Wednesday's landing, NASA said.
The shuttle delivered the first segment of Japan's three-piece Kibo laboratory and a Canadian-built maintenance robot named Dextre.
The main segment of Kibo, which will be the station's largest lab when completed early next year, is scheduled for transport to the outpost on a shuttle flight in May. Kibo is Japanese for "hope."
Kibo's arrival marked the first time that all 15 partner nations in the $100 billion project have had a facility on the the space station, the first segment of which was launched into orbit in November 1998.
"So this is a fabulous moment for us," NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said in a Monday night press briefing.
"It is without a doubt the largest, most technologically challenging international project ever undertaken by humankind, and we as a people ought to be proud of where we are."
He said the space station was about 70 percent complete. NASA, the U.S. space agency, plans 10 more shuttle flights to expand and supply the outpost before the aging shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
(Editing by Eric Beech)
