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Shuttle Makes Safe Landing

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The New York Times

Published: June 15, 2008

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER - The shuttle Discovery rolled to a stop here Saturday morning, bringing to a close a 14-day mission to the International Space Station.

The mission was devoted to further construction of the $100 billion space station, including the delivery of the $1 billion main module of a Japanese laboratory known as Kibo, or Hope.

The module, a silver can roughly the size of a tour bus, is the second component of the three-part lab to arrive at the station.

The seven-member crew also delivered replacement parts for the station's single toilet, which had been malfunctioning for a week before the shuttle arrived.

Much of the mission also was spent examining rotary joints that turn the station's enormous solar panels toward the sun. Mission managers noticed that the joint on the right side of the station was showing unusual vibrations last year, and spacewalkers found damage and metal shavings. The joint has been largely parked since then.
Mission managers say they still do not know what caused the damage, but decided the joint could be repaired in work that could begin with a flight scheduled to launch in November.

There are 10 space shuttle missions scheduled before the shuttle program is wound down in 2010 to make way for the next generation of spacecraft, known as Constellation. The next scheduled shuttle mission, in October, will be a flight to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

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