 | | The space shuttle Discovery returns to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida November 7, 2007. Discovery, with a crew of seven aboard, completed a mission to the International Space Station. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
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U.S. space shuttle Discovery landed safely at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:01 p.m. EST (1801 GMT) Wednesday, after completing a construction mission crucial to International Space Station, NASA television showed.
The weather conditions over the landing site are favorable around the landing time, according to NASA TV. Under the clear skies, with seven-astronaut crew aboard, Discovery made a smooth on-time touchdown.
An hour before the landing time, Discovery made a deorbit burn at 11:59 a.m. EST (1659 GMT). The 1 minute, 58 second burn slowed the spacecraft by 238 kilometers per hour for the reentry diagonally across the heartland of the United States traveling from the northwest to southeast, said a NASA TV commentator.
This is the first time since the tragic loss of shuttle Columbia in February 2003 that U.S. space shuttle attempt a return to Florida's Kennedy by taking a path across the contiguous United States heartland.
Discovery spent about 15 days in space since its Oct. 23 launch. It delivered to the station a new Harmony module, which is funded by the United States and built by Italy.
During the 11-day extraordinarily busy stay at the station, which began on Oct. 25, Discovery's crew, along with the station's crew, conducted intense and exceedingly complex construction work.
They carried out four spacewalks, installed Harmony, the new connecting module, relocated a massive truss to its permanent location and successfully repaired a torn solar array on the truss during a risky fourth spacewalk.
This ISS expansion mission paves the way for the European Columbus science lab to be installed in the next shuttle mission in early December, and the Japanese Kibo lab, due to be delivered in early 2008.
Discovery's STS-120 also delivered a new station crew member, Flight Engineer Daniel Tani, who replaced astronaut Clayton Anderson. Anderson returned to Earth aboard Discovery after five months on the station.
Also, this is a remarkable flight for womankind. Discovery Commander Pamela Melroy is the second woman to command a shuttle. Up at the station, a female skipper Peggy Whitson currently served as commander. It is the first time in the 50-year history of spaceflight that two women were in command of both the space shuttle and the International Space Station at the same time.
STS-120 is the 120th space shuttle flight, the 34th flight for shuttle Discovery and the 23rd flight to the station.
With Discovery now returning to the ground, space station astronauts have some major housekeeping to pull off in November. The three-person Expedition 16 crew will need to relocate Harmony to its permanent place, configure it and finally hook up coolant, power and avionics lines to it.
Scheduled on Dec. 6, shuttle Atlantis is to deliver the Columbus module up to the station, using Harmony as a connecting hub. NASA has announced to move Atlantis to launch pad on Nov. 10.NASA hopes to complete the construction of ISS before the shuttle fleet is grounded in 2010.
Source:Xinhua
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