With Commander Alan G. Poindexter and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. at the controls, space shuttle Discovery descended to a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center around 9:08 EDT on Tuesday morning. The STS-131 crew members concluded a 15-day journey of more than 6.2 million miles and delivered supplies to the International Space Station.
Discovery arrived at the station April 7, delivering more than seven tons of equipment and supplies. During the 10-day stay, Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson conducted three spacewalks to install a 1,700-pound ammonia tank assembly on the station’s exterior to replace a depleted predecessor. They also replaced a rate gyro assembly, retrieved a Japanese experiment and two debris shields.
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.
Hello Florida,
Glad to hear of the safe & smooth Discovery landing . We watched the shuttle’s graceful ride across our Midwest skies this morning at 6:16 am CST sitting in our lawn chairs parked out in our farm fields enjoying the morning sunrise wrapped in blankets sipping hot chocolate:)