Houston, we have touchdown.

The space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Tuesday afternoon, ending almost two weeks of deep space drama that centered around a deep gouge in the shuttle's belly .

The ship was called home by NASA a day early by fears that Hurricane Dean could cause the space centre in Florida to be evacuated.

The shuttle swooped out of the partly cloudy sky and touched down on the runway at 12:32 pm

"Congratulations. Welcome home. You've given a new meaning to higher education," Mission Control told commander Scott Kelly and his crew, which included teacher-turned-astronaut Barbara Morgan.

Canadian astronaut David Williams was part of the crew and broke the Canadian record for three spacewalks and longest free-floating in space at just over 17 hours.

With its pilots reporting no problems, Endeavour zoomed over the South Pacific, crossed Central America and Cuba, then headed up the Florida peninsula into Kennedy Space Center.