Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
The space shuttle Discovery glided back to Earth this week, safely ending the first U.S. space mission since the loss of the shuttle Columbia in February 2003. “We’re happy to be back,” said the shuttle commander, Col. Eileen Collins. The crew resupplied the International Space Station, and tested new techniques for repairing the spacecraft in flight. Despite a successful spacewalk to remove a piece of fabric that came loose in the shuttle’s underbelly, NASA announced during the 14-day mission that it was grounding the shuttle fleet after Discovery’s return. During launch, a 1-pound piece of foam insulation broke off a redesigned external fuel tank, the very problem that doomed Columbia and its seven astronauts.
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