Tech Talk

After a successful lift off last March 15, the Space Shuttle Discovery returns home from its successful voyage!

The Space Shuttle landed in Florida last Saturday after its successful 13 day mission to bring much needed parts to the International Space Station to bring it to full power.

Coming home with the original space shuttle crew was Dr. Sandra H. Magnus, who was the flight engineer on the space station. Replacing Dr. Magnus, after her four months stay on the space station was Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who was aboard the space shuttle when it lift-off two weeks ago.

The successful mission of Discovery cleared the way for the space station’s expansion by installing a fourth and final set of solar arrays that doubled the power available for scientific research. It also delivered a replacement centrifuge for the laboratory’s urine recycling system, which is needed to support six-person crews after the shuttle is retired in 2010.

The space shuttle’s succes, NASA is now moving ahead with it plans of launching the shuttle Atlatis for a servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope on May 12.