STS-133 MCC Status Report # 27
12:45 pm CST Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Discovery today made its final landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, concluding a successful flight to the International Space Station and a history of 39 missions that cover 238 million miles driven in 365 days in space.
"Discovery, for the last time, without wheels," said Commander Steve Lindsey.
"A great job done by you and your team," said the Capcom and fellow astronaut Charlie Hobaugh. " that you have just done all of you was an awesome mission to the ISS.
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| The crew landed just in front of the Discovery [NASA]. |
Lindsey thanked the team of flight controllers, the crew of the station and the team at KSC that have provided "a perfect vehicle from beginning to end."
The landing, like the rest of mission, was almost perfect. The Discovery of the wheels touched the concrete runway at 1657 UTC, after a flight of 12 days, 19 hours and four minutes and 8'486'624 miles driven in 202 orbits.
Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Steve Bowen, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott have delivered a new module and external stowage platform to the station as well as equipment and supplies. During the nearly nine days since Discovery at the station, and Drew Bowen made two spacewalks to perform maintenance and installation of new components.
The visit of the Discovery Station has been extended two days so the crew could complete the preparation of the Permanent Multipourpose Module Leonardo, the very form delivered into orbit by Discovery. Leonardo had visited the station as early as seven times as a logistics module for transport of loads, but has since been renovated to serve as a permanent addition of 70 cubic meters per orbiting laboratory. Among the 2,700 kg of load was also present on Leonardo 2 Robonaut, a robot that replicates the top of a human torso, which could be a precursor of devices used to help during the spacewalks. About 900 pounds of additional cargo to the station were also loaded onto the shuttle middeck.
The unofficial mission time was 12 days, 19 hours, four minutes and 50 seconds. The Discovery flight has to reach a total of 5'830 238'539'663 mileage orbits.
The crew will return to Houston for a welcoming ceremony at Ellington Field's Hangar 276 tomorrow, Thursday 10 at about 4 pm, Houston time. The gates to the public, is invited to attend, will open at 3:30 pm.
- End -
[original Status Report NASA / JSC]
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