Astronauts in final checks before return to earth

ASTRONAUTS completed flight control checks aboard space shuttle Discovery and practiced landing on a computer simulator as they made final preparations to return to Earth.

“It’s time to come home and keep working on getting the shuttle better and ready to fly in the future again,” Commander Eileen Collins said yesterday.

As the crew prepared for the return trip, the seven astronauts got good news from mission control. For the first time in three years, all four gyroscopes that control the orientation of the International Space Station were working.