Space shuttle Endeavour returned to Earth safely Aug. 21, ending a nearly two-week orbital drama that centered on a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly and an early homecoming prompted by a hurricane.

Space shuttle Endeavour deploys its drag shoot after landing safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Aug. 21. AP PHOTO

The gouge looks only slightly worse than it did in orbit, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's space operations chief. The exposed felt material, the last barrier before the shuttle's aluminum frame, did not char, he said.

"The teams will pop these tiles off, we'll take a look at the underlying material to make sure that there's no damage, there's nothing going on," Gerstenmaier said

The 9-cm gouge to Endeavour's protective tiles caused by falling debris during liftoff was the main concern for much of Endeavour's mission.

The shuttle swooped out of the partly cloudy sky and touched down on the runway at 12:32 p.m. as the astronauts' families cheered.

"Congratulations. Welcome home. You've given a new meaning to higher education," Mission Control told the crew, which included former teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan. Morgan had been Christa McAuliffe's backup for the doomed 1986 Challenger flight.

Over the past few days and right up until landing, NASA had stressed that the gouge in Endeavour's belly would not endanger the shuttle during its landing, but it did not want the shuttle to suffer any structural damage that might require lengthy repairs.

There was zero chance of a Columbia-style disaster this time, NASA managers insisted, although they acknowledged re-entry was always risky.