kennedy space center

The Space Shuttle Discovery's crew of seven astronauts ended a 15-day, 6 million-mile journey on Tuesday the picture perfect landing on the Kennedy Space Center."What a great job. What I liked ... We are delighted that the International Space Station is full of it," Alan Poindexter commander by radio that the Steering the runway after landing 33 of the KSC Shuttle Landing's tool.The crew was to spend an extra day in orbit, because of the rain and the cloudy sky on Monday, preventing them from packing the station's mission set. Return to almost ruined for the second consecutive day, the long-term fog forced flight controllers to the first landing opportunity of the Discovery early Tuesday.

But the sun was shining in the Space Coast before 8 am, opening the way for NASA Poindexter, the green light to come home.The volcanic ash from Iceland Eyjafjallajokull Glacier, which is caused by the flight disruptions, spread throughout the world, does not affect the landing plan, NASA said.The shuttle dropped by the U. S. Heartland on his way back to the Cape. Entered the mainland near Vancouver, then flew over the southeast to the northeast of Washington, Montana, Wyoming center, northeast Colorado, southwest Kansas and Oklahoma. Passed north of Little Rock, Arkansas, rather than to Oxford, Miss, near Montgomery, Ala., South of Columbus, Georgia, Florida and finally to the East Gainesville.

This was the first time since 2007 that the shuttle was flying over a large part of the United States. NASA normally would prefer to bring the shuttle home from the southwest, the South Pacific, Central America and the Gulf of Mexico. That is the minimum flying over densely populated areas.In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia over Texas during re-entry occurred, but no one on the ground, was damaged by debris.The mission history of the four women in space: three of the shuttle and station. Special Mission Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Linden Civic and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki was part of the seven Discovery crew. Dyson Astronaut Tracy Caldwell is the station.