Space shuttle Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The U.S. space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew returned to earth Saturday after a successful two-week mission to the International Space Station.

The shuttle safely touched down at 11:15 a.m. local time (1515 UTC) at the U.S. space agency's landing strip at the Kennedy Space Center in the southeastern state of Florida.

The mission's highlight was the installation of a new $1 billion Japanese science lab, which is now the largest room in the orbiting space station. Astronauts also exchanged a member of the orbital outpost's permanent crew and repaired a broken Russian-built toilet.

NASA engineers cleared the shuttle to return home on Friday after an inspection of the shuttle was completed. Engineers had seen an object floating away from the shuttle on Friday, but later said it was a metal clip from the rudder's assembly and determined the situation posed no problem.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, and Reuters.