EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Aug. 9 -- The space shuttle Discovery dropped from a starry pre-dawn sky and coasted to a smooth, safe stop in the California high desert early Tuesday, capping the nation's first return to manned spaceflight since sister ship Columbia exploded over Texas in February 2003.
The uneventful descent and apparently perfect landing concluded a voyage of 5.8 million miles and 219 orbits around Earth over 14 occasionally nerve-racking days. Shuttle crew and controllers confronted the hazards posed first by a piece of foam insulation that ripped away on takeoff -- a shocking event that forced the delay of all upcoming missions -- and later by protruding tile filler that was removed in a historic spacewalk, and finally by the ominous clouds hovering over the original landing spot in Florida.
In the end, the landing was diverted from Kennedy Space Center because of bad weather on both Monday and Tuesday mornings. On the West Coast, Discovery met clear skies, gentle crosswinds and the cheers of a NASA team still recovering from the disastrous last attempt at a shuttle landing that caused the deaths of seven astronauts.
Shuttle commander Eileen Collins, noting that some critics have questioned whether the shuttle program is worth the risk to astronauts' lives, pleaded for the nation's support. "The Columbia crew believed in their mission, and we are continuing their mission . . . exploring space and making life on Earth better for all of us," said Collins, a veteran of three previous flights, at a news conference after Discovery's landing.
Still, NASA officials were careful to characterize the mission's success as only a first step in getting the program back on track. The shuttle fleet remains grounded -- threatening President Bush's push to finish building the international space station within five years and return humans to the moon within 15 -- until engineers can identify what caused the Discovery to shed foam insulation.
While the foam loss apparently left no scars, similar foam shedding during Columbia's takeoff left damage to its exterior that caused the orbiter to disintegrate and burn upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.
The grounding of the shuttle fleet cast serious doubt on the possibility of a shuttle launch next month, and Tuesday's landing was perhaps the coup de grace as Discovery may need 10 days to get back to Kennedy Space Center before NASA technicians can begin preparing it as the backup vehicle for Atlantis's upcoming mission.
Agency Administrator Michael D. Griffin noted that Discovery's mission, the 114th by a shuttle, marked only the 145th trip by humans into space. "We're still in the very first stages of spaceflight," he said. ". . . What the American people can count on from us is our very best effort to make it easier every time."
He added: "We are going to try as hard as we can to get back into space this year. But we're not going to go until we're ready."
From his ranch near Crawford, Tex., Bush hailed the mission as "an important step for NASA as it regains the confidence of the American people."
Although the fate of Columbia was much on their minds, Collins and her fellow astronauts said after their landing that they were not nervous or fearful during their mission. "You're really concentrating on what your job is," co-pilot Jim Kelly said.
Even so, Kelly acknowledged "a moment of trepidation" when Collins fired the auxiliary engines to turn the craft back to land -- a point of no return known as the "de-orbit burn."
