Descending majestically from cloud-streaked desert skies, the space shuttle Discovery returned to Earth Monday, completing a flawless four-day mission that is expected to go a long way toward rebuilding confidence in America`s space program.
A thunderous double sonic boom announced Discovery`s arrival over the California high desert. As the orbiter began its approach, hundreds of thousands of spectators strained to pick out the tiny speck that had appeared above the fringe of mountains on the northern horizon.
It was an emotional moment-relief yielding to exultation-when Discovery finally and gently touched down on Runway 17 at 11:37 a.m. Chicago time, ending a triumphant mission that completed 64 Earth orbits totaling 1.68 million miles and lasted 4 days 1 hour and 57 seconds. The profound national trauma of the Challenger disaster 32 months ago may at last have been eased.
”A great ending to the new beginning,” radioed Blaine Hammond of Mission Control in Houston to Discovery commander Frederick Hauck as the 97-ton spacecraft rolled to a stop on the hard sand of the lakebed runway while a band played the national anthem.
At a news conference after the landing, NASA Administrator James Fletcher called the mission ”an absolute stunning success.”
In a mission without a serious technical hitch, the hardest part for the five astronauts may have come early Monday when they struggled in the shuttle`s weightless environment to don the new, 70-pound spacesuits now required for launch and re-entry.
Discovery began its re-entry burn at 10:35 a.m. while 184 miles above the Indian Ocean, just east of the southern tip of Madagascar. Less than an hour later, after a fiery plunge through the Earth`s atmosphere and a free-fall course over the Pacific, the crew began approach maneuvers above Edwards with a 249-degree left overhead turn, slowing the powerless orbiter and placing it on final approach to the runway.
Discovery descended at a steep angle in an eerily silent glide. As it drew close to the runway at more than 200 miles an hour, the nose pitched up and the wheels touched down in a perfect landing, slowing quickly as Hauck applied the shuttle`s new brakes.
Hauck and his crew remained on board the orbiter for 51 minutes after landing, completing a detailed checklist of post-flight operations while ground technicians examined the spacecraft for toxic fumes and began the process of cooling it down from the heat built up during re-entry.
After a preliminary inspection, NASA officials said remarkably few of the 30,000 heat-resistant tiles that form the shuttle`s protective skin were damaged on re-entry.
The first person to greet the crew was a flight physician who boarded Discovery to conduct preliminary medical examinations of the astronauts.
When Hauck, copilot Richard Covey, 42, and mission specialists John Lounge, 42, and David Hilmers and George Nelson, both 38, emerged from Discovery, they were officially welcomed by Vice President George Bush. Hauck carried a large American flag as he bounded down the gangway.
”We did it!” he declared.
At welcoming ceremonies after the landing, Bush congratulated the crew as ”America`s high five.”
”You`ve shown that the shuttle is a strong ol` bird and that it could-and should-fly again,” the vice president said.
”Thank you for putting America back in space. Thank you for reminding us that`s where we belong. Thank you for all the unheralded hard work, and thank you, thank you for your courage.”
Hauck, emotion cracking his voice, told the audience, ”It`s been a long road for the country, for NASA, for everybody involved in the program.”
Crew member Hilmer said that while his name would soon be forgotten, ”I want you to remember what America can do when it pulls together.”
And ”Pinky” Nelson, enthusiastically greeted by a contingent from California`s Harvey Mudd College, his alma mater, compared the success of the mission to winning a gold medal in the Olympics.
Cheering, flag-waving spectators, many of whom had camped overnight, witnessed the landing from various vantage points around Edwards, the storied flight-test base in the Mojave Desert 80 miles north of Los Angeles.
”Oh, wow, isn`t that beauty in motion,” marvelled James Snelling, 19, of Glendale, Calif., as he picked up the descending orbiter in the lens of his camera. ”Mission accomplished!” he shouted when it touched down.
”It was excellent,” agreed his companion, Andy Pease, 17, of Montrose, Calif. ”But my hands were shaking so much I`m afraid my pictures won`t come out.”
After the preliminary debriefing was completed, the astronauts and their families had lunch with the vice president. The crew flew back to Houston Monday evening and were greeted by another rousing reception from a crowd of 4,000.
Much was accomplished during Discovery`s 97 hours in space. In addition to conducting 11 scientific experiments, the crew launched a 5,000-pound communications satellite expected to enhance the National Aeronautics and Space Administration`s ability to track spacecraft orbiting the Earth. A similar satellite, including its 32,000-pound booster rocket, was lost in the Challenger disaster.
But the mission`s most important achievement was America`s return to staffed space flight. It was a test of the shuttle program itself, and a failure would have been an enormous blow to America`s prestige and NASA`s morale.
In the 32 months since Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, NASA has spent $2.4 billion and countless hours to redesign its shuttle fleet and improve safety. As a result, Discovery carried more than 200 design changes into space.
All the redesigned systems functioned properly, and ground control needed to monitor fewer than a dozen items as ”potential anomalies” during the mission. ”I don`t think you can expect very many flights to be as flawless as this one,” Fletcher said.
