The Discovery astronauts found sunny skies in California on Friday as they descended to a weather-delayed landing at Edwards Air Force Base to end a demanding two-week mission to the International Space Station.
Earlier in the day, thunderstorms twice prevented the seven astronauts from landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, a replay of the foul conditions on Thursday that kept the shuttle orbiting for an extra day.
Discovery discharged a pair of sonic booms as it soared across the California coast at the end of a high speed descent over the Pacific Ocean and touched down at the air base north of Los Angeles at 7:53pm.
PHOTO: AFP
“Welcome home, Discovery,” Mission Control radioed shuttle commander C.J. “Rick” Sturckow said. “Congratulations on an extremely successful mission.”
Discovery will be hoisted atop a Boeing 747 jumbo jet and flown back to Kennedy late this week as a result of the stormy Florida weather, said Mike Moses, who chairs NASA’s mission management team. The cost of the cross-country trip is about US$1.8 million.
Discovery dropped off more than 8.1 tonnes of supplies, life support gear and scientific equipment at the space station, leaving the space outpost better equipped to house crews of six astronauts as NASA prepares to retire its aging space shuttle fleet by early 2011.
A half-dozen shuttle missions remain, each intended to gradually bring the assembly of the 15-nation space station to an end.
“We’re pretty fat on supplies now, thanks to you,” space station resident Mike Barratt told the shuttle astronauts as they departed earlier last week. “We’re in better shape to carry out our work.”
Fellow American Tim Kopra, who ended a 58-day mission to the space station, was among those aboard Discovery.
“This experience has completely exceeded anything I thought it would it would be like, just in sights and sounds, the experiences,” Kopra said. “It’s been absolutely phenomenal.”
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