CAPE
CANVERAL, Fla. - Seven astronauts safely returned
to Earth today on board space shuttle Discovery, ending a space station construction
mission that NASA called a tremendous success.
NASA
administrator Mike Griffin said the STS-120
mission is like a link in a chain to build the International Space Station
(ISS)--what he considers more complex than previous moon missions.
"Any
link that breaks, and it's no longer a chain," Griffin said. "We're
not going to do great things in space unless we can rely on the next crew to
build upon what the last crew did."
During the
STS-120 mission, astronauts mended
a solar blanket that unexpectedly tore during its deployment. Griffin said the emergency repair effort was not the single most impressive task in human
spaceflight, but regarded it as impressive nonetheless.
"There
have been some extraordinary saves [in human spaceflight]," Griffin said. "It was an extraordinary mission and we've have many such."
'Picture
perfect landing'
Discovery's
tires screeched across a sun-bathed runway today, just after 1:01 p.m. EST
(1801 GMT) here at Kennedy Space Center.
Commander
Pamela Melroy piloted the massive spaceship over the heartland
of America--a path not taken since Columbia broke up over eastern Texas in 2003.
A convoy of
vehicles descended upon the 100-ton spacecraft shortly after a parachute slowed
it to a stop. Technicians cleared the area of toxic propellant fumes and then
helped the weak-kneed crew out of the ship.
Melroy, who
made history as one two women to share her command in space, said from the
runway that the orbiter performed perfectly.
"We
could not have done this mission without Discovery being as clean and as
beautiful as it was," Melroy said in front of the spaceship. "We are
thrilled to be back home."
A time
to learn
Melroy and
her crew delivered a bus-sized room to the International Space Station (ISS),
relocated a massive solar array truss and repaired a solar wing that tore
during its unfurling on Oct. 30.
A second
problem--a gritty solar-array-orienting set
of gears--also arose during the astronauts' 15 days, two hours and 23
minutes in space. But Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for
space operations, said the issues give the agency a chance to prepare for
future spaceflight endeavors.
"We're
moving towards [the] moon and Mars," Gerstenmaier said of NASA's goals.
"This is the time to learn, when you're hours away from home."
By
delivering the
Harmony module, the mission created an attachment point for the European
Space Agency's Columbus laboratory module, which is set to launch Dec. 6 on
board shuttle Atlantis.
But the
work is not over.
The space
station's Expedition 16 crew must relocate the room with a pressurized docking
mechanism attached to it, then hook up all of its coolant, power and avionics
lines. If any more problems arise, NASA officials said they will not hesitate
to push back Atlantis' launch to January, if necessary.
Coated in a
dust of carbon from atmospheric reentry, 24-year-old shuttle Discovery is now
being towed back to a hangar, where engineers will start servicing it almost
immediately for an April 2008 flight. It is slated to ferry up a massive
Japanese experimental module and robotic arm during the mission.
NASA
expects to send as many as 12 more shuttle flights to the space station by
September 2010, when its shuttle fleet retires. Upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope
is also on NASA's calendar for next year.
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