Space shuttle Endeavour landed smoothly at Edwards Air Force Base in California on Sunday (press release).

“It’s great to be back on the ground, and it’s great to be in California,” said shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson (AP).

Florida Today says:

Endeavour’s flight — the 124th by a shuttle and the 52nd to land at Edwards —travelled more than 6.6 million miles during 251 orbits of Earth. It was the 20th time a shuttle that intended to land at KSC was diverted to Edwards, all but one of those cases because of weather. NASA prefers to land in Florida because flying the shuttle home from California on a modified 747 costs about $1.8 million and slows processing for the next mission.

Image: NASA/Tony Landis