Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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."

1 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. 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.