Discovery made a safe return to Earth on Tuesday after a two-week resupply mission to the International Space Station that broke new ground by putting four women in orbit for the first time.
The shuttle and its seven-member crew finally touched down at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:08am after a series of earlier delays due to rain and fog.
“Welcome home. Congratulations on an outstanding mission,” Mission Control said after the Discovery put more women in orbit than ever before, with three female crew joining one woman already on the space station.
“What a great mission,” replied Discovery commander Alan Poindexter. “We enjoyed it.”
The mission also marked the first time that two Japanese astronauts were in space at the same time, with Discovery mission specialist Naoko Yamazaki joining Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
And it signaled a growing awareness among NASA’s ground team and astronauts that the vaunted shuttle program is winding down, marking the end of an era in human spaceflight.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet, but we do have to recognize that like anything else, there does have to be an end to any major program,” said Pete Nickolenko, NASA’s launch director, during a post-landing news briefing.
“We recognize that we are facing that, that we are coming up to it,” he said. Meanwhile, Bryan Lunney, the NASA flight director who supervised Discovery’s descent and will also oversee the final shuttle flight, said it is a bit too early to get misty-eyed.
“For me, we are heads down focused on the mission, trying to make sure it’s safe and successful,” he said.
Discovery dropped from orbit on Tuesday over the Pacific Ocean and followed a rare course that took it over much of the US upper Midwest and Southeast, leaving a glowing contrail for ground observers.
The shuttle’s crew delivered nearly 8 tonnes of scientific equipment and other supplies intended to fortify the orbiting science laboratory for operations well beyond the final shuttle flight.
The new research gear includes an Earth observation rack to hold cameras and spectral scanners for studies of the atmosphere, geological formations, and weather-induced crop damage.
Another new experiment monitors changes in the muscle and joint health of the astronauts in the absence of gravity. A new freezer will store specimens for medical and biological experiments.
During three spacewalks, two of the astronauts wrestled with bulky bolts to replace a boxy coolant tank that is essential to the long-term function of the station’s life support systems.
Discovery has only one more flight before it is mothballed, while NASA counts just three more missions until it retires its entire shuttle fleet and embarks on a new phase in human spaceflight.
The US space agency will have to turn to Russia to transport Americans to the orbiting science laboratory while it tries to foster a commercial space taxi industry.
Shuttle Atlantis will fly next, with a lift-off tentatively scheduled for May 14. Endeavour is to follow, with a launch scheduled for July 29. If the scheduling holds, Discovery will lift off for the station on Sept. 16.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS