NASA space shuttle Discovery returns safely
April 20th, 2010 - 11:55 pm ICT by BNO NewsCAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA (BNO NEWS) – NASA announced that space shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts landed safely Tuesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The 15-day journey of more than 6.2 million miles, fortified the International Space Station, delivering science racks, new crew sleeping quarters, equipment and supplies. In addition, the STS-131 mission crew were able to install a new ammonia storage tank for the station’s cooling system, replace a gyroscope for the station’s navigation system and remove a Japanese experiment from outside the Kibo laboratory for examination on Earth during three spacewalks.
Alan Poindexter commanded the flight and was joined by Pilot Jim Dutton and Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Lindenburger is the last of three teachers selected as mission specialists in the 2004 Educator-Astronaut class to fly on the shuttle.
“We had a lot of adversity but we overcame it all with some great team work,” said Mission Specialist Anderson, who participated in the mission’s three spacewalks and previously spent five months at the space station. “I’ve had two homecomings this flight. I got to go home to the International Space Station and now I get to come home to KSC (Kennedy Space Center). To all of you who helped get us up and bring us back, thank you so very much. God bless America.”
The STS-131 crew members officially concluded their successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched ground at 9:08 a.m. EDT.
A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Wednesday, April 21, in Houston. The public is invited to attend the 4 p.m. CDT event at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar 990.
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