>> Hi, I'm Mark Kelly commander of space shuttle Endeavour.
My first of 4 space flights was as Endeavour's pilot on STS108 in December 2001.
This is Endeavour's last flight and certainly my last shuttle flight as well.
We left the station with new spare parts,
supplies and an advanced scientific instrument called the alpha magnetic spectrometer.
AMS is already at work gathering information
that could improve our understanding of the universe.
The 2 billion dollar instrument weighs 15,000 pounds and involved the collaboration with more
than 600 scientists and engineers from 60 institutions in 16 countries.
This cooperation illustrates a legacy of Endeavour, the space shuttle
and the Space Station, the international collaboration, the exploration
and utilization of space has become.
Endeavour is a proud name borne by a number of ships.
Few were less racy but more able than explorer James Cook's Endeavour.
The Endeavour Cook used on his first voyage of exploration was built the hull [inaudible]
like those on which Cook had served as a merchant marine officer.
It was blunt out slow yet reliable, strong and able to take a lot of punishment.
It would survive grounding on Australia's Great Barrier Reef
that would have sunk most ships of its day.
In some ways it reminds us of our own Endeavour.
Our mission is returning from the International Space Station
after Endeavour's 12th visit to the orbiting laboratory.
There, people from many nations have served continuously in successive cruise since November
of 2000 teaching and learning from one another about interactions and about how best
to do things in this harsh environment.
Endeavour flew the first Space Station assembly mission STS 88, the first Japanese component
of the Space Station was taken by Endeavour to the station in March 2008.
It also delivered node 3, Tranquility and the Copula, the robotic work station
with 6 windows to the ISS in February of 2010.
A space craft that was partly a collection of spare parts,
Endeavour also features advance new hardware that helped improve safety and performance
of other orbiters when it was later incorporated into them.
Endeavour OV-105 authorized by congress in August 1987 as a replacement
for challenger was name through a national competition
of elementary and secondary school students.
Endeavour was delivered like the Kennedy space center on May 7,
1991 and launched first into space on May 7, 1992.
Endeavour's STS 118 launch on August 8, 2007 was its first in 4 years
after a lengthy modernization following the loss of space shuttle Columbia.
This flight was commanded by my brother Scott Kelly.
While we launched on STS 134, Endeavour already had traveled almost a 116.4 million miles
in space on 24 previous flights.
It had spent 283 days in space and orbited the earth 4,423 times.
We're adding significantly to that total.
It has taken 133 individuals into space.
Some of them more than once.
Astronauts are just a tip of a very large iceberg.
Behind us are thousands of people civil servants, contractors, suppliers.
They are dedicated, hard working folks who believe deeply in what we do.
They train us to do our jobs.
They build, repair and maintain our spacecraft and their equipment.
They manage our missions, launch us and control our flights.
They support us in many, many ways.
We believe deeply in them enough to trust them with our lives.
We've talked a lot about Endeavour, the space shuttle,
in the past now that we've looked back let's take a moment to look ahead.
The retirement of Endeavour and the shuttle fleet will not end the human need to explore.
It is and always will be part of who we are.
The United States will build other spaceships better than those of today.
Even if they are years in the future, they will nevertheless increase our knowledge
of the world, generate an enormous benefit to our economy, and inspire our children.
We can't know when they will come about or what they will be but perhaps one
of those new vehicles of exploration will be named Endeavour and maybe it will take humans
to other planets or even more distant worlds circling other stars.
It could bear a no prouder or more fitting name.
>> Here we had just departed from the international Space Station.
Now we're seating here in Endeavour's airlock and we've got 2 of our spacesuits here
that we used for the work that we did during our 16-day mission and we're happy to be part
of Endeavour's legacy and round out the final space walks of the space shuttle era.
>> Endeavour started up with some spectacular space walks on its maiden voyage
and it ended with our 4 space walks.
And we hoped that the tools and techniques that we've learned over the years specially here
with Endeavour is-- will be applicable for all the space walks
that we're gonna be doing on asteroids, moon and Mars.
[ Noise ]
>> It has be an honor for me to be a part of the STS 134 space flight with my crew
on the last shuttle flight of Endeavour.
It's also-- behind up the assembly of the international Space Station
and that's been extremely rewarding for me to see that our presence
as European Space Agency and as Europe is strong.
Columbus [inaudible] node 3, copula
and many other components are coming from ESA and from Europe.
We are coming on board the Endeavour to make final landing
and that will be the last landing of this cargo machine.
I do not believe this is the end of flights similar to the one that I experienced.
I truly believe that the legacy will continue.
And everything that we have learned from all the shuttles including Endeavour would be the base
of the transportation of future generation.
>> Well what does Endeavour mean to me, what am I thinking of Endeavour
on the flight here before landing, Endeavour is really a special ship to me,
a couple of years ago I was on the station for 6 months and I was dropped off by Discovery
and I never saw another vehicle this size as a lot of traffic up there with Progress
and Soyuz and an ATV coming down.
But after 6 months on the Space Station I had a wonderful time
and the mission went really well and its time to come home.
And my ride home was gonna be Endeavour.
And I'll never forget the moment that Endeavour pulled
into formation right below the Space Station.
We were hovering the service module taking pictures of Endeavour
and this massive spaceship came up and after 6 months of seeing nothing like that and it flew
into formation with the Space Station it was just a beautiful,
beautiful it was unbelievable sight.
You know the other night I was looking at the whole Space Station from the copula late
at night and I saw Endeavour lit up but over the earth you know at night
and I took some pictures with a star background.
It's just a beautiful spaceship and it really belongs here.
It's just when you see it attach to the Space Station it just realty looks
like it belongs here, it belongs in space.
And so you know it is a little bit hard to see another spaceship like this being retired.
We know that you know more is gonna come in the future and the future is gonna be very exciting.
But I thin k the legacy for Endeavor is exactly what it was doing here on the Space Station.
Endeavour's life begins the Space Station assembly you know the first flight that is here
to assemble part of the Space Station was Endeavor and now here
on the last flight she was here for the final assembly and the Space Station is complete
and although Endeavour's retiring, it's a new beginning.
And the Space Station now is a place where we're gonna do the research and practice
with a new systems and life support.
And everything we need to do to be able to explore farther and to conduct science
up here that will take us further.
So the Space Station is our new foothold on the future and that's a big legacy
that Endeavour has as well as the whole space shuttle program.
And so this is what I think about as we come to land Endeavour tomorrow.
>> When I first became an astronaut over a decade ago, one of my very first jobs was to go
to the cape and prepare the space shuttles for launch and landing.
And so we spent a lot of time in all the different orbiters
in Discovery, Atlantis and Columbia.
But Endeavor was always my favorite and I think Endeavour was my favorite
because it was the newest of the orbiters, smelled a lot more like a new car than some
of the other more seasoned orbiters.
Getting the second flight in Endeavour and being on her final flight is amazing to me.
>> This 25th flight of Endeavour, one of the more significant missions I would claim
in the assembly of the Space Station partly because we brought up the AMS,
the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer which is an amazing scientific experiment
that will help scientist better understand our universe.
But also it was the 25th flight of Endeavour and the final flight of Endeavour and so being
on this mission was a great honor and privilege to me.
If you ask me what I think Endeavour's legacy would be,
I'd have to say well first being a part of the mainstay, the work horse of the space program,
the space shuttle for the last 30 years.
Endeavour was a big part of that.
But also Endeavour had the unique distinction of bringing up the very first piece
of the international Space Station and then by installing the orbiter boom system on top
for use for the stations armed to extend its robotic arm, the Endeavour brought
up the last piece of the Space Station as well.
So I think Endeavour's legacy would be that she was a very important part of the assembly
of the Space Station from beginning to end.
And also to me personally because I had my first day on Endeavour
and I'm having my last day with Endeavour.