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Shuttle Discovery back home safely after 14-day mission
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-12 17:40

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE: The space shuttle Discovery landed safely in California on Friday after bad weather forced a switch of its touchdown site at the end of a two-week mission to the International Space Station.

Shuttle Discovery back home safely after 14-day mission

The Space Shuttle Discovery leaves contrails in the sky as it comes in to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California, September 11, 2009. Discovery returned to earth from mission STS-128 which delivered supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. [Agencies] 

NASA diverted the spaceship to Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert after waiting in vain for two days for rain and clouds to clear over the shuttle's home port in Florida, the originally scheduled landing location.

Under partly cloudy desert skies, the shuttle landed at 8:53 pm EDT on Friday (0053 GMT on Saturday).

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"Welcome home Discovery, congratulations on an extremely successful mission," astronaut Eric Boe radioed from mission control to the crew as Discovery came to a stop.

Banking into its final landing approach visible from a whisp of twin contrails, Discovery first appeared from the ground as a white speck glinting in the fading sunlight high over the northeastern horizon.

The orbiter swiftly descended to the base's main runway, a dull roar of aerodynamic drag growing louder, and touched down with a puff of smoke as the rear wheels made contact with the runway at a speed of 250 miles per hour.

Just minutes before, double sonic booms thundered through the sky as Discovery dipped below the speed of sound for the first time since blasting off on August 28, one minute before midnight, from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA's 128th space shuttle mission.

Flight directors had tried on Thursday and Friday to bring Discovery back to Florida.

Shuttle Discovery back home safely after 14-day mission

Post mission team members work near the rear of Space Shuttle Discovery after it landed on runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, September 11, 2009. Discovery returned to earth from mission STS-128 which delivered supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. [Agencies] 

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