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Space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth
The US space shuttle Discovery landed at its home port on Saturday, after a mission that gave Japan a permanent toehold in space and setting NASA up for its next mission - a high-profile servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Agencies
- Published: 19:47 June 14, 2008
Cape Canaveral, Florida: The US space shuttle Discovery landed at its home port on Saturday, after a mission that gave Japan a permanent toehold in space and setting NASA up for its next mission - a high-profile servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Shuttle commander Mark Kelly steered the spacecraft through pockets of thin clouds as it slowed from a top speed of 28,000 km per hour in orbit to under the speed of sound just short of the runway at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Discovery touched down at 1515 GMT on a canal-lined landing strip to complete NASA's 123rd shuttle mission. Just 10 flights, including one in October to the Hubble telescope, remain before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.
In addition to installing Kibo, the seven-member Discovery crew delivered a new pump for the station's broken toilet and prepared the $100 billion orbital outpost for a crew of six, rather than the current three, beginning next year.
The shuttle also ferried a new station crewmember, Greg Chamitoff, to replace Garrett Reisman, who returned aboard Discovery after a three-month mission.
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