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Shuttle Has Safe Return

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The Associated Press

Published: March 29, 2009

CAPE CANAVERAL - Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday and successfully wrapped up a construction mission that left the International Space Station with all its solar wings and extra electrical power.

Discovery swooped through a cloudy sky and landed at NASA's spaceport in midafternoon, a little later than initially planned.

Mission Control delayed Discovery's homecoming by about 90 minutes, or one orbit, because of windy, cloudy weather.

Discovery's 13-day flight was highlighted by the installation and unfurling of the space station's last pair of solar wings.

Discovery came back in good shape. Even the area of the belly where a heat shield test was conducted during re-entry looked to be fairly clean, officials said.

A new type of tile with a slight bump was attached beneath Discovery's left wing to disrupt the hypersonic air flow. Infrared images were taken by a Navy plane as the shuttle crossed the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward Florida, so engineers could measure the extra heat generated on downstream tiles.

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