Discovery Space Shuttle Lands Home Safely
Posted Tue, Apr 20, 2010 by John R. Loomis
NASA top brass can now breathe out a sigh of relief after The Discovery, a space shuttle they launched half a month ago on a touch-base reconnaissance trip to the International Space Station, finally landed to complete the mission. Although there were no reports of machine failure or technical difficulties within the shuttle command center itself, it took a rather peculiar landing pattern after repeated failed attempts to touch the ground. The scrubbed landings were attributed to bad weather, dark clouds and scattered rain showers. The third attempt was finally successful when the space shuttle landed on Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing 238 orbits of the Earth and capping the 15-day mission.
This mission, or STS-131 in space agency circles, was manned by seven astronauts who spent 14 days in space and orbited around the world many times for a full day before landing back to home base. The Discovery mission in space marked a notch in space history by including three lady astronauts who coincidentally worked with one female astronaut who was already at the space station. It was the first time in history that four female astronauts worked together in space.
The Discovery Space Shuttle or formally known as Orbiter Vehicle Destination OV-103 is considered the oldest orbiter in service for NASA. It is schedule for its last flight on September 16 and then it will be retired so NASA can on building updated space shuttles for more far-reaching missions and for longer durations, too.
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