What a cool night landing! STS-123 was forced to land after the sun went down when officials called off the first deorbit burn. 16 days in space and almost 150 earth orbits. Endeavour rolled in throwing flames down the runway. Out of the shuttle’s 68 landings at Kennedy, STS-123 was the 16th to take place at night.

Image above: This image reveals the Shuttle Landing Facility as seen from the cockpit of space shuttle Endeavour as the orbiter approached for landing. Image credit: NASA

Space shuttle Endeavour returned to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:39 p.m. EDT, concluding the STS-123 mission with a flawless landing on Runway 15. The 16-day assembly mission was the longest flight to the International Space Station to date.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour’s drag chute unfurls in a kaleidoscope of color as the orbiter lands in darkness on Runway 15 at NASA Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility to end the STS-123 mission, a 16-day flight to the International Space Station. This was the 16th night landing at Kennedy. The main landing gear touched down at 8:39:08 p.m. EDT, March 26,2008. The nose landing gear touched down at 8:39:17 p.m. and wheel stop was at 8:40:41 p.m. The mission completed nearly 6.6 million miles. The landing was on the second opportunity after the first was waved off due to unstable weather in the Kennedy Space Center area. The STS-123 mission delivered the first segment of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory and the Canadian Space Agency’s two-armed robotic system, known as Dextre. Photo courtesy of Gary Rothstein

This is a most awesome video of the landing!

Bonus: Cool Mars Interactive…