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Space Shuttle Discovery Lands at Kennedy Space Center

by PEP | June 14, 2008 at 07:06 am

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UPDATE:

Space Shuttle Discovery and her crew are safely back on earth following a beautiful landing in Florida.

Hitching a ride home: astronaut Garrett E. Reisman, who flew to the International Space Station March ll as part of the STS-123 mission. Dr. Garrett has now explored our world from the depths of the ocean to space.

In June 2003, Dr. Reisman was a crewmember on NEEMO V, living on the bottom of the sea in the Aquarius habitat for two weeks. Astronaut Greg Chamitoff replaced Reisman on the ISS during this mission.

UPDATE: On the final approach, Shuttle Discovery looks beautiful against the clean blue sky. The double sonic booms herald their approach to KSC.

The heads-up display shows the pilot's view as the crew head for touchdown.Commander Mark Kelly is flying Discovery.

Original story follows.

Carrying success back home with them, the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery is on track for an 11:15 a.m. EDT landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The weather looks good.

Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven streaked toward Earth on Saturday to cap a successful expansion job at the international space station, more spacious and robust thanks to a new billion-dollar science lab.

Commander Mark Kelly and co-pilot Kenneth Ham fired the braking rockets at midmorning, putting their ship on a downward course straight for NASA's spaceport. The descent was expected to take an hour, with touchdown set for 10:15 a.m. CT

When the astronauts got the final "go" for landing, they cheered.