The U.S. space shuttle Endeavour has made a successful nighttime landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, ending a 16-day mission to add new components to the International Space Station.

Endeavour touched down Wednesday evening after taking an extra orbit around the Earth to wait for skies to clear.

Endeavour's seven-member crew delivered the first part of Japan's three-piece Kibo laboratory, as well as a Canadian-built robot designed to perform external maintenance tasks on the orbital outpost.

Five spacewalks were conducted during the mission, including one that involved testing a new method for repairing damaged shuttle heat shield tiles.

Endeavour also delivered a NASA flight engineer, Garrett Reisman, to the ISS. He will replace a French astronaut, Leopold Eyharts, who was brought back to Earth Wednesday after spending 1 1/2 months in space.