Discovery Returns

On Wednesday, the space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth after concluding a 15 day space station build and repair mission. The space shuttle made a safe landing after crossing the continent in the first coast to coast reentry since the almost five years ago Columbia disaster. The seven shuttle astronauts and three residents of the international space station joined together to save a mangled solar wing. It was one of the most dangerous and difficult repairs ever attempted in orbit, but it was very important for the future of the space station. To land the shuttled first crossed over British Columbia and then diagonally descended over Montana, Wyoming, the Great Plains, the Deep South, before finally landing in Florida. After double inspections it was confirmed that the spaceship’s wing would hold up to three thousand degree heat of atmospheric reentry. The mission began on October 23 and the astronauts knew then that the mission was going to be on of the most complicated and challenging space station construction missions ever. They had no trouble with the repairs, but the flight was where it became complicated. The first wing pooped out fine, but the second one snagged in a clump of tangled wires and ripped in two places. Paraznski, the shuttles captain, fixed the torn wing with pliers and homemade tools. He had to work on a solar wing coursing with more than 100 volts of electricity that was moving back and forth. He was supported on the end of a 90 foot extension beam. Clayton Anderson had spent 152 days in the space station and has finally come home. Melroy became the second woman to land a space shuttle.

NASA stands for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation’s public space program. NASA was established on July 29, 1958 by the National Aeronautics and Space Act. It is responsible for the space program and for the long term civilian and military aerospace research.

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