Discovery lands in Florida

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

Discovery glided down through an overcast sky onto the Kennedy Space Centre runway at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 9.14am (2.41pm 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 about a minute before landing.

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

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

The shuttle came in from the south, swooping over the Pacific, Yucatan Peninsula, Gulf of Mexico and across Florida to cap a 5.3 million-mile journey that began on the July 4.

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

At touchdown, hoots and whistles came from the few hundred astronaut relatives and space centre workers watching the landing.