. 24/7 Space News .
Discovery Returns Safely, Astronauts Make Space Travel Plea

The ISS as photographed by a crewmember onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery following the undocking of the two spacecraft, 06 August 2005. AFP PHOTO/NASA The crew delivered 12 tonnes of equipment to the Russian and the American aboard ISS, and retrieved waste to clear out space in the cramped orbiting lab.
by Marc Lavine
Edwards AFB (AFP) Aug 09, 2005
Discovery roared safely back to Earth on Tuesday after a tense first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster and its crew pleaded for support for future space travel.

Commander Eileen Collins staged a perfect night-time touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base, ending a troubled 14-day, 9.28-million-kilometer (5.8-million-mile) trip that raised new doubts about the future of US space programme.

"Discovery is home," Mission Control said as the Discovery touched down to the cheers of relieved NASA workers.

Hours after she piloted the spaceship, heralded by two huge, triumphant sonic booms, onto a runway in the Mojave desert here, Collins sought to sway opponents of the shuttle programme and US plans to send manned flights to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

"Some people say we should stop flying the shuttle because we had an accident," she said referring to Columbia and the Challenger explosion in 1986.

"But we are people that believe in this mission and we are going to continue it," Collins declared. "And I ask you to please support us - it's very important to us."

The shuttles were "making life even better for all of us in this country and around the world by exploring space," she said, in an appeal to political doubters and the families of the seven astronauts on Columbia that disintegrated on re-entry on February 1, 2003 after superheated gases broke through its heat shield.

Collins said a picture of the Columbia crew was kept on Discovery's flight deck and she thought about the dead NASA astronauts every day.

The Columbia tragedy was blamed on insulation foam that fell off and damaged the orbiter's left wing upon take-off.

Similar chunks of foam fell from the external tank when Discovery blasted off on July 26, but NASA said there was no significant damage and cleared the craft for landing despite a tear on the cockpit's thermal blanket.

NASA chiefs hailed Discovery's mission as a success, even though they failed to completely solve the problem that doomed Columbia 30 months ago.

"This was a wildly successful mission," Space Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons said.

President George W. Bush said that Discovery's voyage had been an important step towards eventual missions to the Moon and Mars, which he is backing.

"It was a great achievement. It was an important step for NASA as it regains the confidence of the American people and begins to transition to the new mission we've set out for NASA," he told reporters at his Texas ranch.

The shuttle was to have made its much-delayed landing three hours earlier at Cape Canaveral in Florida but rainstorms forced NASA to divert to the opposite US coast.

After a mission largely aimed at testing improvements made to the shuttle since Columbia, Discovery is now grounded with the rest of the fleet until the debris problem is resolved.

The US space agency is optimistic a solution will be found soon, and has tentatively scheduled the next launch for September 22.

"We're going to try as hard as we can to get back in space this year ... But we're not going to go until we're ready to go," NASA administrator Michael Griffin said.

Collins and Griffin played down the latest insulation foam problem, pointing out that space exploration remained a largely uncharted and risky venture.

"This is not an enterprise where one can predict the outcome with certainty," Griffin said at Cape Canaveral.

"We're still in the early stages of learning how to do space flights," the NASA chief said.

NASA officials said every bit of data collected during the flight would be carefully analyzed in order to make the shuttle a safer craft.

Astronaut Stephen Robinson conducted an unprecedented spacewalk under the shuttle to extract two protruding pieces of fibre that risked overheating during re-entry.

Robinson and Noguchi also tested repair techniques adopted after the Columbia tragedy, and replaced one of four gyroscopes that keep the International Space Station in its orbital position.

The crew delivered 12 tonnes of equipment to the Russian and the American aboard ISS, and retrieved waste to clear out space in the cramped orbiting lab.

The mission initially had been scheduled to last 12 days but uncertainty over the date of the next flight added a day and landing delays due to weather at Kennedy Space Center on Monday added another.

The California landing will cost NASA about one million dollars to piggyback the shuttle back to Florida on a Boeing 747 and could delay any launches later this year.

Japan's Noguchi Makes Plea For More International Astronauts

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who Tuesday returned from a 14-day space shuttle odyssey, appealed for more international astronauts to be given a chance to aim for the stars.

Noguchi, the sixth Japanese to go into space, also recalled bringing a taste of Japan into space by taking a Japanese meal to the International Space Station (ISS).

"It was a great honour to participate in this expedition," he told a press conference along with four fellow astronauts from the shuttle Discovery just hours after it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

"I think it's a great opportunity for the international astronauts to join the great American crew. I hope that other foreign nationals will have the same chance," he told reporters on the desert base.

The charismatic space traveller said his favourite moment of the 9.28-million-kilometer (5.8-million-mile) trip was a meal shared on the ISS by its crew and that of the Discovery to which he contributed a Japanese meal including curried rice.

"I feel like going back to the station tomorrow. I really enjoyed every moment of the flight from launch to landing," he said.

But there were poignant moments for the first shuttle crew to go back into orbit following the horrific destruction of the Columbia two and a half year ago, the Japanese astronaut, wearing a blue flight suit, said.

"Obviously Columbia was always in our minds. We had picture of the Columbia crew on the flight deck. They were always in our mind.

"But we tried to concentrate on what we were doing and to enjoy every moment. I was just happy to fly all the way down," Noguchi said.

Noguchi's commander Eileen Collins praised "our first-time flyer from Japan," saying the three spacewalks he made during the trip along with Stephen Robinson were "fantastic."

"He's a rookie but you would have never known it," she said, adding that he was charged with a range of duties including documenting the flight with photos and videos.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

Related Links
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express

Discovery Crew Upbeat As It Readies For Critical Return Stage
Cape Canaveral (AFP) Aug 07, 2005
Discovery's astronauts were upbeat as they readied for Monday's scheduled return to Earth, but remembered Columbia's seven crew members who lost their lives during re-entry into the atmosphere.



Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only














The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2016 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.