Discovery glides back to earth

SPACE shuttle Discovery and its crew of six returned to Earth through overcast skies yesterday, ending a successful US mission that put Nasa back in the space station construction business.

Discovery glided down onto the Kennedy Space Centre runway at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 2.14pm Irish time, allowing Nasa to declare total victory for the first time since before the 2003 Columbia disaster.

It was so cloudy, shuttle commander Steven Lindsey could not spot the runway until just before landing.

“Welcome back Discovery and congratulations on a great mission,” Mission Control told Lindsey.

“It was a great mission. A really great mission,” Mr Lindsey replied.

A last-minute buildup of clouds prompted Nasa to switch the shuttle’s direction for landing.

Atlantis is up next with a crew poised to carry out assembly of the international space station, a task put on the back burner after Columbia.