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Discovery and her crew landed safely a 9:14 a.m. EDT this morning at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
During the 13-day mission, Commander Steve Lindsey and crew delivered supplies and a third crewmember to the International Space Station and continued evaluation of new safety procedures. Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum made three spacewalks.
Even under the best of circumstances, it takes some serious dedication and courage to strap yourself to a barely-controlled ongoing explosion, ride it into an environment that will kill you within seconds if your protections fail to even the smallest degree. When you know in advance that two other vehicles identical to yours failed to bring their crews home again, and that your own vehicle had damage found on it before they even lit the fuse, and you are still willing to climb through that hatch... well, depending on your point of view, it's either insanity, or heroism.
Even though it's unlikely any of them will ever be awarded any medals for it, I know which one I consider it to be.
To the crew of STS-121, welcome home, and thank you.
During the 13-day mission, Commander Steve Lindsey and crew delivered supplies and a third crewmember to the International Space Station and continued evaluation of new safety procedures. Astronauts Piers Sellers and Mike Fossum made three spacewalks.
Even under the best of circumstances, it takes some serious dedication and courage to strap yourself to a barely-controlled ongoing explosion, ride it into an environment that will kill you within seconds if your protections fail to even the smallest degree. When you know in advance that two other vehicles identical to yours failed to bring their crews home again, and that your own vehicle had damage found on it before they even lit the fuse, and you are still willing to climb through that hatch... well, depending on your point of view, it's either insanity, or heroism.
Even though it's unlikely any of them will ever be awarded any medals for it, I know which one I consider it to be.
To the crew of STS-121, welcome home, and thank you.
