Discovery is Home!The shuttle, via piggy-back, made it back to Cape Canaveral. It will soon be lifted off the 747, which will be backed-out and the orbiter will be gently lowered to the runway on its landing gear.
On Monday, the Discovery will be towed two miles by a diesel-powered tractor to the Orbiter Processing Facility. Once inside, the payload bay doors will be opened and the materials brought back from the International Space Station will be unloaded and Mission STS-114 will be officially complete.
Space Shuttle Discovery is slated for Mission STS-121 in March, 2006. Discovery will be used for STS-121 instead of Atlantis, putting NASA in a better position for future missions to the Space Station. Atlantis will fly the following mission, STS-115, carrying Space Station truss segments which are too heavy to be carried by Discovery. By changing the lineup, the program won't have to fly back to back missions with Atlantis, as was previously scheduled.
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