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Discovery Lands in Florida

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the return-to-terra-firma dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "As reported by the BBC, the space shuttle Discovery safely landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2232 GMT. Discovery's 13-day mission is being called a success after astronauts undertook four space walks to install new wiring and to do battle with a recalcitrant solar panel. The next scheduled flight is the Atlantis shuttle in March. A video chronicle of the mission, including the landing, is available at NASA's video gallery."

5 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. You can by chanrobi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    land the shuttle too! http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=1758

    1. Re:You can by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Uh, what... Time to switch to a more modern Shuttle sim perhaps? ;-)

      Orbiter (more info and screens)

      --
      Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
  2. Fuglesang! by Nevtje(hr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Välkommen hem!

    First swedish astronaut ever. I'm so proud!

    Even cooler is the fact that he is funny (not some deeply overserious physics guy)- I very much enjoyed the interview with him from ISS.

    --
    Three rings for the Elven-kings in the sky
  3. Only 14 More Flights! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For all you space fans out there, I suggest you make an effort to watch these shuttle launches, landings, and ISS construction missions when they happen. There are only 14 more space shuttle flights planned before retirement of the entire fleet in early 2010. All except one (the Hubble Telescope repair mission) will be construcing and resupplying the space station.

    Spaceflightnow.com has a nice manifest of future flights (see link below). Number 3 on the manifest just finished.

    http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts116/fdf/manif est.html

    Yes the shuttles have enormous problems (huge costs and long turnaround times, for example), but they are really the most versatile and capable spacecraft ever sent into orbit. After the shuttles are retired, we'll be going back to Apollo-style craft for the foreseeable decades. I for one am glad my child is old enough to be able to see and remember these shuttles flying in their final years.

  4. Re:Another Safe Landing by Anonymous+McCartneyf · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Normally they aren't that interesting to me, either. But this is different.
    You see, after the Discovery had launched and was in space, it was discovered that something had hit the wing and maybe damaged some wiring. When I heard about that, I was afraid then that we might get another Columbia incident.
    They set a record on spacewalks this mission because they had to take an extra spacewalk to fix that wing.
    And then, this shuttle landed on the very last day it could have safely landed. There was bad weather in Calif. and bad weather in Florida continually up to that day. If it had tried to land through bad weather, it risked crashing. If it had stayed up another day, it would have ran out of fuel and become a very large piece of space junk. So the people in charge of landing this shuttle took a gamble.
    So yes, the Discovery landing safely, in one piece, and with everyone onboard alive is news. Excellent news, but news nonetheless.

    --
    There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney