Discovery Lands Safely in California
Woohoo! Discovery and the crew of seven astronauts have landed safely! Welcome home!
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Discovery and its crew of seven glided safely back to Earth on Tuesday, ending a riveting, at times agonizing, 14-day test of space shuttle safety that was shadowed by the ghosts of Columbia.
Discovery swooped through the predawn darkness and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert at 5:11 a.m. PDT, concluding the first shuttle re-entry since Columbia’s tragic return.
The landing was moved to California because of thunderstorms at the shuttle’s home base of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“Congratulations on a truly spectacular test flight,” Mission Control said once Discovery came to a stop. “Welcome home, friends.”
“We’re happy to be back and we congratulate the whole team for a job well done,” Commander Eileen Collins replied.
The inherently dangerous ride down through the atmosphere — more anxiety-ridden than normal because of what happened to Columbia 2 1/2 years ago — appeared to go smoothly.
“I was pretty anxious all day,” flight director LeRoy Cain said at a post-landing news conference. He said there were a couple of anomalies during re-entry but labeled them “insignificant.”
White House spokesman Trent Duffy called it “a proud day for America.”
AP Photo/Chris Carlson
