At 9:09 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, the space shuttle successfully touched down in Florida, bringing the spectacular shuttle landing path to an end. NASA officially announced the completion of the space shuttle landing today after the shuttle landing path took Discovery and also the crew over much of the United States – from state parks in Montana to a pay day loan store in Georgia. After two scrubbed landings yesterday, this space shuttle landing was not assured to be a go – in fact, for a when, it was under question.
Space shuttle landing today almost did not happen
This morning was the 3rd attempt NASA made at landing Discovery at the Florida space center. Yesterday, bad weather and very thick clouds led to two different space shuttle landing attempts being canceled. The space shuttle landing today had to be postponed by an Earth orbit due to nearby rain showers. Following the Discovery space shuttle made 238 complete orbits of the planet, the shuttle touched down in Southern Florida.
The shuttle landing path across the USA
The shuttle landing path that Discovery took was very unusual for NASA. Ever since the Columbia disaster in 2003, which scattered debris across California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas, NASA has scheduled the shuttle landing path so that it does not go overland. However, the Discovery shuttle landing path allowed the crew to get several additional hours in space as well as a no fax payday loans no credit checkworth of hours of extra sleep before the space shuttle landing today. This unusual shuttle landing path also allowed people in a large swath of the United States to see and hear the Discovery space shuttle landing today.
Three remaining NASA space shuttle missions
On May 14, the next-to-next-to-last space shuttle launch. The Atlantis space shuttle is the first of the last 3 flights of NASA space shuttles. Discovery will make the last space flight of its life on Sept 16. Once this space shuttle fleet is retired at the end of the year, NASA will be focusing on projects such as landing on Mars.
See coverage of the space shuttle landing today
