Shuttle Discovery Heads Home For Final Landing
CAPE CANAVERAL (CBS4) – The space shuttle Discovery is on its final journey home, its decades-long mission accomplished.
Commander Steven Lindsey and his crew will test the shuttle's systems Tuesday. Then the six astronauts will hold a ceremony to mark Discovery's final flight.
Discovery, the world's most flown spaceship, departed from the International Space Station on Monday. Discovery performed a victory lap around the space station immediately after undocking. The shuttle and station crews beamed down pictures of each other's vessel, with the blue cloud-specked planet 220 miles below as the stunning backdrop.
It will wrap up its 13-day mission with a Florida touchdown on Wednesday, weather permitting.
Discovery is being sent to the Smithsonian Institution for display after it undergoes several months of decommissioning. NASA's two other shuttles will join Discovery in retirement, following their upcoming missions.
NASA managers contend the fleet still has lots of flying lifetime left. But the agency is under presidential direction to aim for true outer space, which means giving up the shuttles, which are confined to orbit.
On the next shuttle flight, by Endeavour next month, a $2 billion physics experiment will be installed on the outside of the space station. Atlantis will blast off with supplies on the final shuttle mission at the end of June.
American astronauts will continue hitching rides to the space station on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, at great expense. The intent is for private U.S. companies to take over those ferry operations within a few years.
(©2011 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
