Hi,
I watched the live coverage via NASA T.V. earlier today - outstanding. The cameras picked up the shuttle from 110 miles out. Congratulations Discovery and the crew of STS-124. "Mission Success".
Discovery's astronauts glided to a safe touchdown at Kennedy Space Center at 11:15 a.m., capping a 5.7-million-mile mission to the International Space Station.
The 122-foot-long orbiter landed about 2,600 feet down the three-mile landing strip at a speed of 195 knots, or about 225 mph, and then rolled to a halt 13 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes and seven seconds after launch two weeks ago.
"Houston, Discovery. Wheels stop," mission commander Mark Kelly said.
"Roger. Wheels stop, Discovery. Beautiful landing, Mark. And congratulations on a great mission," fellow NASA astronaut Terry Virts said from Mission Control in Houston.
"Okay. Thanks and it's nice to be back. and it's great for all of us to be part of a big team that made the station a little bit bigger and a little bit more capable," Kelly said.
"Copy that, and we concur," Virts replied.
The astronauts delivered the Japanese Kibo science research module to the station. At nearly 37 feet in length and weighing 16 tons, Kibo -- which means "hope" in Japanese -- is the largest laboratory at the station. NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who replaced Garrett Reisman as a flight engineer on the station, watched the landing live on a video feed beamed up from Mission Control.
The astronauts delivered the Japanese Kibo science research module to the station. At nearly 37 feet in length and weighing 16 tons, Kibo -- which means "hope" in Japanese -- is the largest laboratory at the station. NASA astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, who replaced Garrett Reisman as a flight engineer on the station, watched the landing live on a video feed beamed up from Mission Control.
"Houston, what an awesome sight to be able to watch the space shuttle land live here onboard the space station, and what a beautiful landing," Chamitoff said. "Congratulations to the whole team. It was a spectacular mission from end to end, practically flawless, and we have a new hope -- the Kibo module on the space station, and it was a great success."
"It was pretty down here as well," NASA astronaut Kevin Ford replied from the station flight control room in Houston. "And yeah, you've got to call that one a huge success. You guys enjoy Kibo."
Bye for now,
Nick
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