Discovery Landing

On Wednesday 06 Nov. Discovery touched down at Kennedy Space Center at 13:01:18 (just as projected) from it's 15 day mission to the International Space Station. I was watching the live feed on NASA Tv all day up until landing eagerly waiting to see what would happen. I was absolutely astounded and couldn't help but laugh when I heard the controllers announce to the crew that they would begin to decelerate from Mach 22 to Mach 11. In less than an hour the orbiter screamed across North America from north-west Canada to central Florida.

At about 1250 I made my way outside (with almost everyone else in my building) to watch the bird land. For the first time ever, I got to hear the double sonic booms from re-entry. They were loud enough to set off car alarms in the parking lot.





I put in to get into the raffle to watch the landing from the runway but didn't win. So I was a little bitter that I would not be able to see Discovery in all her glory post landing. Much to my surprise on Thursday morning she was sitting outside Bay 3 waiting to get docked. Apparently there were some issues but I don't know the extent of them. I do know there were some issues later in the day when she was getting towed in. The system is measured by a laser. If the measurements are even a fraction of an inch off base the orbiter will be backed out of the bay and brought back in. NASA's misfortune made out for a great photo-op for me.