CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Endeavour's seven astronauts landed today at Edwards Air Force Base in California, completing a successful 16-day mission that furnished the International Space Station to house larger crews.

"Welcome back," astronaut Alan Poindexter said from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston after Endeavour rolled to a stop just before 4:30 p.m. EST. "It was a great way to finish a fantastic flight."

"We're happy to be here in California," Endeavour commander Chris Ferguson replied.

NASA detoured the spaceship to its secondary landing site because of gusty winds and thunderstorms that swept across Kennedy Space Center, conditions that were not expected to improve tomorrow.

The mission began Nov. 14 with a moonlight launch from Cape Canaveral.

During a nearly 12-day visit to the space station, Endeavour's crew and three station residents unloaded more than seven tons of appliances, supplies and science experiments from the shuttle's packed cargo container.

The centerpiece: a system designed to recycle astronauts' urine and sweat for drinking water, an essential resource for station crews that are expected to double to six people next year.

The astronauts initially struggled to activate a urine processor, prompting a one-day mission extension. But after a successful fix, the shuttle returned with water samples that will be tested before the recycling assembly can be approved for daily use.

Other new gear delivered included a toilet, refrigerator, exercise machine and two sleep stations.

Outside the space station, four spacewalks tackled greasy and tiring repairs to a joint that rotates a set of American-made solar wings so they can track the sun.

The mission won global attention after a tool bag floated away from an astronaut and was lost during the first spacewalk.

But a team of three spacewalkers completed their tasks by sharing tools and improvising new repair techniques.

Endeavour's flight - the 124th by a shuttle and the 52nd to land at Edwards - traveled more than 6.6 million miles during 251 orbits of Earth.

It was the last of this year's four shuttle missions. The next flight, by Discovery, is targeted to launch Feb. 12 and deliver a final set of solar wings to the space station.