Space Shuttle Discovery Crew Returns to Earth after Fortifying International Space Station Science
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts
ended a 14-day journey of more than 6.2 million miles with a 9:08
a.m. EDT landing Tuesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The STS-131 mission to the International Space Station delivered
science racks, new crew sleeping quarters, equipment and supplies.
During three spacewalks, the crew installed a new ammonia storage
tank for the station's cooling system, replaced a gyroscope for the
station's navigation system and retrieved a Japanese experiment from
outside the Kibo laboratory for examination on Earth.
Alan Poindexter commanded the flight and was joined by Pilot Jim
Dutton and Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Dottie
Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson, and Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Lindenburger
is the last of three teachers selected as mission specialists in the
2004 Educator-Astronaut class to fly on the shuttle.
A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Wednesday, April
21, in Houston. The public is invited to attend the 4 p.m. CDT event
at Ellington Field's NASA Hangar 990.
Highlights from the ceremony will be broadcast on NASA Television's
Video File. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to
streaming video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
With Discovery and its crew safely home, the stage is set for launch
of shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission, targeted to lift off May
14. Atlantis' 12-day flight will deliver the Russian-built Mini
Research Module to the station along with six new batteries to store
power gathered by the Port 6 solar arrays. Shuttle mission STS-132 is
the final scheduled flight of Atlantis. Following STS-132, two more
shuttle flights are scheduled before the fleet is retired.
For more information about the STS-131 mission and the upcoming
STS-132 flight, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
Two STS-131 crew members, Clay Anderson and Naoko Yamazaki, used the
social medium Twitter to discuss the mission. For their Twitter feeds
and other NASA social media websites, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/connect
Educational activities on the STS-131 mission focused on robotics and
promoting careers in science, technology, engineering and math. For
NASA's teacher and student resources and activities related to
robotics, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education/
For information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
Source: NASA
