Discovery touches down after 14-day mission

Discovery's crew also had to cope with a series of delays, from launch to landing. A fuel gauge glitch caused the launch to be postponed 13 days until July 26. While in flight, the mission was extended a day to give the crew more time to transfer supplies to the space station. And the landing, originally set for Monday, was delayed a day by poor weather in Florida. The poor weather persisted Tuesday, forcing NASA to divert Discovery to California.

Discovery was the first shuttle to visit the space station since 2002 and a large part of the mission was spent transferring supplies and taking away tons of trash and old equipment from the station. Collins praised Camarda and Lawrence for their efforts in the transfer. Lawrence, the chief of transfer, "called us her drones," Collins recalled. "She kept us working, taking bags of supplies back and forth."

In addition to testing the repair tools and making the gap filler fix, spacewalkers Robinson and Noguchi repaired one of the station's gyroscopes and replaced another one, bringing the station's four-gyro guidance system to full strength for the first time in three years. Noguchi, along with Camarda, was a space rookie, "but you would never have known it," Collins said.

Japanese astronaut Noguchi said it had been an honor to "join this great American crew." One of his favorite memories, he said, was sharing some great Japanese food with the shuttle and station crews during a joint meal.

"I feel like going back to the station tomorrow," he said. "I really enjoyed every moment of the flight."

Collins and others shared similar sentiments, saying what they'd miss the most was the view of Earth from space. While they saw "some of the most beautiful parts of the Earth," the astronauts also saw evidence of deforestation and erosion taking place, Collins said. The view at night was also stunning, she said, adding that they flew through the southern lights at one point.

'The torch is now passed'
Even before Discovery was launched, an oversight panel said the space agency had to do more to address potential debris problems. At a minimum, the problems with foam-shedding and the tile gap fillers will have to be addressed before NASA launches Atlantis, the next shuttle in line.

Readdy compared the return to flight to a relay race. "The torch is now passed to Atlantis and the STS-121 crew," he said.

Teams are already at work looking at how to fix the remaining problems, said Readdy, who, like others at NASA, stressed the difficulties of spaceflight. "Eileen made it look like a cakewalk ... but there wasn't a single part of this mission that was easy."

Currently, Atlantis is due to fly another test mission to the space station no earlier than Sept. 22, but even during Discovery's flight, deputy shuttle manager Wayne Hale said he didn't consider that  "a serious launch date." If Atlantis doesn't lift off by Sept. 24, the next opportunity would be in early November.

Tuesday's landing was the 50th shuttle landing at Edwards since 1981, but Discovery took a different flight path than its predecessors. The shuttle skirted Los Angeles because of new public safety considerations in the wake of the Columbia disaster, which rained debris onto Texas and Louisiana.

NASA said it would take about a week before they could begin ferrying Discovery back home to Cape Canaveral, and noted that because of the weather, doing so would take two days. The shuttle will be flown atop a specially modified 747, with a pathfinder aircraft flying in front to look for the safest flight path.

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