"A TRULY GREAT FLIGHT': Discovery glides into California on Tuesday morning, avoiding the stormy Space Coast.
By CURTIS KRUEGER, Times Staff Writer
Published August 10, 2005
Glowing orange like a fiery hot coal, the space shuttle Discovery plunged toward the Tuesday morning darkness on Earth.
After 14 days in space, these were the final moments of suspense for seven astronauts who were landing the first space shuttle since Columbia disintegrated in 2003. All of them knew these violent minutes marked the point at which the last crew died.
Later, back on Earth, they would have chances to discuss the future of the grounded shuttle fleet, and to talk about what they believed was an eventful and successful flight.
But first, it was time to fly home.
Commander Eileen Collins set the computers to fire Discovery's maneuvering engines for two minutes and 42 seconds, just enough to send it irreversibly downward. Pilot Jim Kelly felt "a moment of trepidation," because after this, no one could stop the spacecraft from streaking through 3,000-degree heat. At this point, the shuttle becomes a fast-dropping glider.
Kelly thought of Columbia, "obviously hoping that we made it further than they did" and simultaneously wishing that Columbia's crew had made it home too.
Collins had thought about Columbia's crew daily since the February 2003 accident, and had posted a picture of them on Discovery's flight deck. But now, starting the descent, "I wouldn't say it was a distraction, but I would say it was more of a "we're going to get through this and press on.' "
It was the same at Mission Control in Houston.
"I was pretty anxious all day, pretty much from the time we got here," said Leroy Cain, who was re-entry flight director and served in the same role for Columbia.
Shortly after 7 a.m. EDT, the maneuvering rockets fired and Discovery sank toward Earth at more than 17,000 mph, and more than 20 times the speed of sound. With its nose pointed up at a 40-degree angle, Discovery began hitting the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere above the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.
As Discovery fell, an orange plasma of glowing gases, streaked with green, flared outside the windows. The astronauts felt their first gravity in nearly two weeks. "Straps and things slowly settle down to the floor and you get pulled down into your chair for the first time in two weeks," astronaut Andy Thomas said before the descent.
The shuttle flew northeast over the Pacific. Guided by computers, it banked to the left and right, maneuvers to slow it down, then flew north up the California coast. NASA Launch Director Mike Leinbach said communications from Collins went silent about three or four minutes before Discovery reached Edwards Air Force Base in California.
It was reminiscent of Columbia, when Commander Rick Husband's voice cut out, and never came back on the radio.
But Collins' voice returned and "that was a sweet sound," Leinbach said.
For Shuttle Program Manager Bill Parsons, the relief came when he realized the craft had survived the most dangerous period of blasting through the atmosphere. "Mike (Leinbach) and I were sitting together when we went past that point. We just kind of: "All right! We're here!' "
With only a couple of minutes left in the flight, Kelly briefly took over the controls from the computer, and then handed control over to Collins, whose job as commander was to swerve around in a semicircle and land. She had one chance to get it right.
"Congratulations on a truly great flight," Ken Ham, the astronaut on the ground who relays messages to the shuttle crew, said immediately after Discovery touched down flawlessly in the Mojave Desert.
Discovery's flight got off to a troubled start, when a video camera showed a 0.9-pound piece of foam falling off the shuttle's giant external tank during launch. That was the same problem that ultimately destroyed Columbia, and it was the problem that NASA had spent more than two years working to fix.
The agency grounded shuttle flights until the problem can be fixed, but it's not clear if that will be a short-term or long-term delay. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has said this is simply an engineering problem that needs to be fixed. He has still not ruled out a September or November flight for Atlantis.
In spite of the foam problem, NASA officials were effusive about this mission.
The crew brought supplies to the international space station, took away trash, and replaced a faulty gyroscope that keeps the station stable.
Asked about the mission's accomplishments, Collins said, "I believe the most significant accomplishment is just getting the shuttle flying again."
NASA had hoped to land Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, because its expensive to transport shuttles and can delay future flight times. But NASA waved off the first potential Florida landing, which would have occurred at 5:07 a.m. Tuesday. Then thunderclouds materialized over the Space Coast, dashing hopes for a 6:43 touchdown.
The tragedy of Columbia in 2003 defined how this mission was designed, and how it unfolded.
NASA had worked for more than two years to prevent the kind of damage that destroyed Columbia. Investigators had concluded that a piece of foam fell from Columbia during its launch, gouging a hole in its left wing, which then melted and broke apart in the intense heat of re-entering Earth's atmosphere.
So for Discovery's launch, more than 100 cameras were trained on the spacecraft to look for similar events. NASA was stunned to see another piece of foam fall.
Also, the astronauts used a new extension of the shuttle arm equipped with lasers and a camera to inspect the belly of the shuttle for damage - a chance the crew of Columbia never had. And as Discovery approached the international space station, Collins flew a loop-de-loop, which enabled astronauts on board the station to photograph the shuttle's underside.
All this inspection led to internal debates over various imperfections. A chipped tile on the shuttle's belly was ruled benign. But astronaut Stephen Robinson made shuttle history when he spacewalked his way beneath the orbiter, and plucked out a piece of fabric that had stuck out between two tiles. It was the first spacewalk beneath the shuttle, and the first such exterior repair.
This was the 114th space shuttle mission, and the 112th to end successfully. It was the 31st flight for Discovery.
Times Staff Writer Curtis Krueger can be reached at krueger@sptimes.com or 727 893-8232.
