The Youngest Shuttles "Endeavour" retires after 25 space flights

After orbiting 4,671 times around the Earth and spending a total of 299 days in space, Endeavour will rest in a Museum in California now after coming to service in 1993.

In the middle of the night when much of the U.S. was deep in sleep, space shuttle Endeavour landed safely, bringing a sigh of relief to the six astronauts and thousands of other space shuttle workers, successfully completing a hectic mission that included installing a $2 billion astrophysics experiment, called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, on the truss of International Space Station.

This was Endeavour's last flight and second to last for the mission that was started by NASA 30 years ago. With just 191 million kilometer on its meter from over 25 flights, Endeavour is the youngest of shuttles, and is now headed for a museum in California, shipping out early next year.

The mission commander Mark Kelly, whose wife Gabrielle Giffords underwent a major surgery for the gunshot wound in the head, thanked his crewmates live on NASA TV for the success of the mission.

Endeavour on its 16 days trip completed NASA's role in space station construction effort, a cosmic ray detector was installed, apart from an extension beam and a platform full of spare parts, all of it will be enough to keep the station running for next ten years.

Few events made this flight more special, as it marked the first departure of a Russian Soyuz capsule and the first call to space by a pope. Pope Benedict XVI called from the Vatican on May 21 when two Italians were aboard the space station complex.

NASA is now shifting its focus from Earth-to-Orbit business to expeditions to Asteroids and Mars. And it will take a while after the upcoming Atlantis flight before Astronauts ride on American rockets again. Till then travel to space will cost tens of millions of dollars per seat for hitching ride aboard Russian Soyuz capsule.

With one mission remaining, many of the workers are sad as many layoffs loom as the shuttle program ends.