Astronauts Glad to Be Home After Space Mission

The astronaut crew of space shuttle Discovery may be glad to be back on Earth, but the spaceflyers will never forget their role in boosting the International Space Station to full power.

It was the views of their handiwork that clinched it, five members of Discovery?s seven-astronaut crew told reporters after landing at NASA?s Kennedy Space Center Saturday in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

?It was really a sight to see,? Discovery skipper Lee Archambault said of his last eyeful of the space station.

The shuttle touched down at 3:13 p.m. EDT (1913 GMT) to end a 13-day mission that delivered the last pair of gleaming solar wings to the space station. The result, as the astronauts saw after leaving the outpost, was a stunning, symmetrical orbiting lab that is the largest manmade structure in space.

?It was just an amazing view,? said Discovery pilot Dominic ?Tony? Antonelli as he tried to explain the feeling of seeing the space station with its new solar wings. ?I just had to look out the window and take it all it. It was just fabulous.?

Archambault and Antonelli returned to Earth alongside mission specialists Joseph Acaba, Steven Swanson, Richard Arnold II, John Phillips and Sandra Magnus. The shuttle astronauts circled the Earth 202 times and traveled 5.3 million miles (8.5 million km) during their mission.

Gravity?s embrace

Magnus returned home to end a nearly 4 1/2-month mission aboard the station and will spend the next few weeks readjusting to Earth?s gravity.

?She seemed to be in very good spirits,? said Archambault, adding that Arnold stayed behind to keep her company when the rest of Discovery?s crew met with reporters. ?She?s doing extremely well for someone who?s been in space for four months.?

Magnus spent 134 days living in space, most of that time as a flight engineer aboard the space station. She was replaced by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who launched aboard Discovery on March 15, and told reporters before landing she was looking forward to finally being outside again, as well as sushi, chocolate milkshake and cheesy foods like pizza.

The astronauts said they weren?t sure if Magnus, who earned a reputation as an inventive cook in space, had yet managed to order some of her hopeful foods.

?We were talking about that this morning though,? Antonelli said. ?So I?m pretty sure it?s still pretty close to the top of the list.?

Swanson and Phillips said they were proud of helping complete the space station?s power grid by adding its fourth set of solar wings. The extra power is expected to help the station support a larger, six-person crew later this year.

For Antonelli, Acaba and Arnold, it was their first career spaceflight and turned up some new insights.

?I think the whole living in 1 G thing is for the birds,? said Antonelli, as he reminisced of the weightlessness of space. ?Zero G, I think, is the way to go.?

Acaba, who like Arnold is a former schoolteacher, said the experience of seeing the planet from orbit and watching lightning storms while floating in the calm of space has given him a new perspective.

?I?ll definitely be looking at things differently now that we?re back on the ground,? Acaba said.

Discovery astronauts and the space station crew also received an unexpected phone call from President Barack Obama during their mission, one that surprised all of the spaceflyers.

?When the President of the United States takes time out of his day to show interest in what you?re doing, no matter who you are or what you are, it?s very humbling,? said Archambault, adding that it was an honor for his crew and that of the station?s. ?It was very, very nice surprise.?

• New Video - President Obama Talks With Shuttle, ISS Crews
• New Video - See the Space Station from Earth
• New Show - Inside the International Space Station