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Discovery Lands Smoothly at Kennedy Space Center

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.

Space shuttle Discovery lands at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing the STS-131 mission to the International Space Station. Photo credit: NASA TV

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.

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1 COMMENT

  1. 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:)

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