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.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Grok in the crosshairs as EU launches deepfake porn probeIN THE SPOTLIGHT The European Union has officially begun investigating Elon Musk’s proprietary AI, as regulators zero in on Grok’s porn problem and its impact continent-wide
-
‘But being a “hot” country does not make you a good country’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Why have homicide rates reportedly plummeted in the last year?Today’s Big Question There could be more to the story than politics
