Endeavour Heading For Final Resting Place

Space shuttle Endeavour has been returned to California before making one last flight - a piggy-back trip over some of the state's best-known landmarks.

The shuttle has touched down at Edwards Air Force Base, 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

After spending the night at Edwards Air Force Base, it will take to the skies later, passing over the state Capitol, Griffith Observatory and Disneyland before landing at LA International Airport.

Endeavour's homecoming was delayed by stormy weather along the Gulf of Mexico.

It left Cape Canaveral, Florida, for California on Wednesday, flying over Tucson, Arizona, home of ex-Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her astronaut husband Mark Kelly, Endeavour's last commander.

Mr Kelly said, "That's my spaceship", as he watched it in the sky above.

He had requested that Endeavour pass over Tucson to honour his wife, who is recovering after suffering a head wound in a shooting attack last year.

Endeavour travel by road on a special flatbed trailer next month to its final destination at the California Science Centre, where it will remain on show.

The space shuttle has deep roots in California: the main engines were manufactured in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, while the heat shield tiles that protected it during re-entry were invented in Silicon Valley.

Known as the baby shuttle, Endeavour replaced Challenger, which exploded during lift-off in 1986.

Nasa lost a second shuttle, Columbia, when it broke apart during re-entry in 2003. Fourteen astronauts died in the accidents.

Endeavour flew 25 times, mostly to supply the International Space Station. It spent 299 days in space and circled Earth nearly 4,700 times, clocking up 123 million miles (198 million km).