Space shuttle Endeavour returned to its California roots Thursday after a wistful cross-country journey that paid homage to NASA workers and former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her astronaut husband.
"That's my spaceship," said Endeavour's last commander, Mark Kelly, as the couple watched the shuttle loop over Tucson, Ariz.
Later in the day, a 747 jet carrying Endeavour swooped out of the desert sky and glided down a concrete runway at Edwards Air Force Base, 100 miles north of Los Angeles, not far from where the now-retired shuttle fleet was assembled.
The shuttle and jumbo jet take off again after sunrise Friday to make low, sweeping passes over Sacramento, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.
Next stop: Los Angeles International Airport where Endeavour will be prepped for a slow ride on a special flatbed trailer through city streets next month to its final destination as a museum showpiece.
Endeavour's highly anticipated homecoming was twice delayed by stormy weather along the Gulf of Mexico. Early Wednesday, it departed from its Cape Canaveral, Fla., home base, soared over NASA centers in Mississippi and Louisiana, and made a layover in Houston, home of Mission Control. Crowds craned their necks skyward as the shuttle circled low over Florida's Space Coast and Houston.
After refueling in El Paso, Texas, Thursday, it flew over the White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, an emergency shuttle landing site used once. Kelly requested that Endeavour pass over Tucson to honor Giffords, who is recovering after suffering a head wound in a shooting rampage last year. Before retiring from her House seat, she was a member of the House committee on science, space and technology.
The couple watched from the roof of a University of Arizona parking garage.
Former Giffords aide C.J. Karamargin said Giffords was "elated" and started "hooting and hollering" when she spotted Endeavour.
Kelley said seeing the shuttle reminded him how difficult it was to land.
"Landing a space shuttle is not easy," he said. "It doesn't glide very well."
Endeavour's maiden voyage into space two decades ago ended with a planned touchdown at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center based at Edwards. Unlike a return from orbit, no ear-splitting twin sonic booms accompanied the latest return.
