Astronauts Return Home to Houston After 'Amazing, Exciting' Flight

"Exciting." "Incredible." "Phenomenal." "Amazing." Such were the words chosen by the STS-124 crew to describe their mission to the International Space Station, where they delivered the Japanese Kibo module, the largest science laboratory to be added to the outpost, before returning to Earth Saturday and home to Houston on Sunday.

The seven astronauts shared their incredible and amazing experiences with a crowd of several hundred friends, colleagues, family members and the public who gathered to celebrate their homecoming at Ellington Field.

"We're really happy to be home," said commander Mark Kelly. "It was a very exciting mission for all of us. It was especially... a great privilege to be involved in a mission that has such an international cooperation aspect to it."

"And really, as far as the space program is concerned, I think it is kind of a historic event, the partnership between the United States and Japan with the space station is something that made this mission extra exciting for all of us," he said.

"We got to grapple the JEM [Japanese Experiment Module], the Kibo module, with the space station robotic arm and got it installed on the space station," described Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Aki Hoshide. "The very next day, we got it activated, opened the hatch, went in and I guess you all saw what happened inside with all of us in there, we had a great party for a brief moment," he said of their acrobatics in the large lab, which had been broadcast to the ground.

"And then we want back to work and the next day. We got some [science] racks in and pretty much all of the racks we transferred that day, so that big empty module became a laboratory. It wasn't activated yet but sure enough it is ready to go now," Hoshide stated proudly.

"The Japanese folks have been waiting for [this moment for] 20 plus years. The dedication and hard work that the people that manufactured that module, the flight controllers back in Tskuba in Japan, who is probably on console right now, and also the training folks who prepared us for this mission, I'd like to say thank you for them."

The incredible, phenomenal ride to orbit

"What a fantastic journey! I don't think I have the words to describe it, especially being an engineer. It is probably impossible to describe," said mission specialist Karen Nyberg, who was the 50th woman to launch into space.

"The ride up, absolutely incredible."

Pilot Ken Ham, who like Nyberg was making his first trip to orbit, agreed with his crewmate.

"I've been in the Navy for a little over 20 years. Probably spent eight years flying strike fighters, four years testing airplanes and another 10 here [at Johnson Space Center], hearing from other flight crews what it is like to go into orbit, and ride that ride, if you will. And I think I've heard all the stories. And I had an imagination in my mind what it was going to be like but the actual experience was so much more," Ham recalled.

"We're sitting on the launch pad, and my window points east, towards the Atlantic. Beautiful sunny day, sitting up there, looking out the window, watching the waves and the seagulls. Those poor seagulls had no idea what was about to break loose. Those engines lit and seven million pounds of thrust was phenomenal. We rolled over on our back, I checked the engines for about a half a second and then I looked out the window again. And it seemed like in a blink of an eye, the sky turned black and I was looking at the coast of North Carolina, which has got to be a 200 mile trip up the coast in a blink of an eye. It was phenomenal. And the Gs just continue to build. And over that eight minute ride to orbit you get this sensation that you are going really, really fast."

And then the engines shut off.

"After MECO [main engine cut off], we have a lot of things to do and I got really busy and at one point, we had flown into night. And I looked down through the front window, because we were in a nose-down attitude at one point, and I saw some city lights in the darkness, which is a view I have never had before. I think it might have been Spain, I'm not sure. And I saw a couple of meteors go by below us and all of sudden you get this reality that you're in orbit. It's pretty cool," said Ham.

Click here to continue reading about the 'simply amazing' space station and 'phenomenal' sights of space at collectSPACE.com.

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