Space shuttle Discovery lands for last time
Posted Mar 9, 2011 12:12:21 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery is back on Earth from its final voyage.
The world’s most flown spaceship landed at NASA’s Florida spaceport a few minutes before noon Wednesday. The space centre was packed with workers, journalists and even some schoolchildren eager to see history in the making.
Discovery will now be retired and, several months from now, head to the Smithsonian Institution. It’s the first of NASA’s three surviving shuttles to be decommissioned.
It ended its flying career with 238 million kilometres and 365 days spent in space.
Two shuttle flights remain, by Endeavour, then Atlantis.
Discovery and its six astronauts spent more than a week at the International Space Station.
