Discovery STS-133 Mission Complete

The past 24 hours have been very exciting. The return of Discovery was one of the most spectacular shuttle landings that I've seen. I think I felt as excited about seeing this one as when I watched the test flight and landing of Enterprise - the prototype for the shuttle fleet. As CMDR Lindsey and Pilot Boe brought Discovery to a full stop on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center, Discovery completed an extraordinary career as the hardest working shuttle in the fleet. When Discovery landed, at 11:57 a.m. EST, it had completed 202 orbits around Earth and a journey of 5,304,140 miles on this mission alone. STS-133 was the 39th and final flight for Discovery, which spent a total of 365 days in space, orbited Earth 5,830 times and traveled 148,221,675 miles!

Welcome home Discovery and your crew of 6 NASA astronauts: Lindsey, Boe, Bowen, Drew, Stott, and Barratt.


It was a lot of fun watching this mission, and it was a great experience sharing it with my students. I was very lucky to have company of about twenty of my students watching the landing live.

I must admit, I am already suffering from a bit of shuttle withdrawal. And that is the reason for this blog. I invite you to join me as I follow the last two shuttle missions: Endeavour STS-134 and Atlantis STS-135. I will also be following the International Space Station Expeditions (currently Expedition 26). In the blog, I will share links to information on each mission, video feeds, photos, and my own thoughts. I also invite you to share your comments and questions.