After a 19-year career and 299 days spent in space, the youngest NASA shuttle Endeavour has landed in Florida and brought its 19-year operational career to a close.

The vehicle hove into view through the night skies above Kennedy Space Centre just after 0230 EDT (0635 GMT), bringing its six-man crew home after a 16-day mission to deliver a premier science experiment to the International Space Station on NASA's second-to-last shuttle flight.

Endeavour spent just over 11 days attached to the ISS following its launch on 16 May. The ship had gone to the platform to install the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a seven-tonne detector designed to survey the blizzard of high-energy particles that are fired at Earth from all corners of the cosmos.

The crew members for space shuttle Endeavour's STS-134 mission are Commander Mark Kelly, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson and Mission Specialists Michael Fincke, Greg Chamitoff, Andrew Feustel and European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori.

The flight is Endeavour's 25th since a maiden voyage in 1992. The youngest shuttle orbiter was built as a replacement for Challenger, the shuttle destroyed in a 1986 launch accident that killed seven astronauts. Endeavour has traveled more than 122 million miles over the course of 25 missions.

The Endeavour is the second of the last three shuttle craft to finish up, the Atlantis will follow suit this year. NASA's oldest and most travelled spacecraft Discovery made its final voyage into space in February.

Take a glimpse of Endeavour's final mission from take-off to its journey back to earth.

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Handout photo shows the space shuttle Endeavour with the ISS in the foreground as the two spacecraft made their relative approach for docking.
Handout photo shows the space shuttle Endeavour with the ISS in the foreground as the two spacecraft made their relative approach for docking. Reuters
The International Space Station039s robot arm closes in on the grapple pin on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. 19052011
The International Space Station's robot arm closes in on the grapple pin on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. 19/05/2011 Reuters
Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts Mike Fincke and Drew Feustel exit the Qwest airlock at the beginning of their spacewalk in this image from NASA TV.
Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts Mike Fincke and Drew Feustel exit the Qwest airlock at the beginning of their spacewalk in this image from NASA TV. Reuters
The space shuttle Endeavour is seen docked to the International Space Station in this photo taken using a fish-eye lens by spacewalking astronaut Mike Fincke.
The space shuttle Endeavour is seen docked to the International Space Station in this photo taken using a fish-eye lens by spacewalking astronaut Mike Fincke. Reuters
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