Endeavor makes her way to Earth

Today the astronauts were busy testing the shuttle's heat shield. Landing on Friday

After detaching from the space station yesterday evening, the shuttle Endeavor performed a maneuver of circling the space station to take pictures from the outside for tests on Earth.
Today, Wednesday, the astronauts in Endeavor spent several hours testing the heat shield, to be sure of their return to Earth on Friday. The thermal protection system was cleared for landing earlier in the mission. This late mission was designed to ensure that no damage was caused by micro meteorites or space debris during the shuttle's docking at the International Space Station or on the way to and from it.

The NASA website as well as news sites covering the mission have not yet specified what time the shuttle is scheduled to land on Friday. We will report the landing in real time as possible.