Shuttle Discovery Completes Final Mission Today

Pictured are NASA astronauts Steve Lindsey (center right) and Eric Boe (center left), commander and pilot, respectively; along with astronauts (from the left) Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Michael Barratt and Steve Bowen, all mission specialists. Photo credit: NASA

After just a little over 12 days and 19 hours from its launch to touchdown, the Space Shuttle Discovery returned to earth today. Discovery completed the STS-133 mission with a landing at the Kennedy Space Center at 11:57 EST.

Barring any changes from NASA, this completes the final mission for the Discovery. The twelve day mission made for a total of 365 days in space for the orbiter over its life in the space program.

After rollout on runway 19 at KSC, shuttle commander Steve Lindsey said, “We’d like to thank the team at the Kennedy Space Center for a perfect vehicle from start to finish.” The shuttle started its final mission in spectacular fashion with a launch on February 24^th at 4:53PM.

The crew started their spacecraft’s final day in space with something of a first for NASA. This morning’s wake up call came in the form of the first ever live band performance of a shuttle wakeup song. The song, “Blue Sky” was sung in the Houston control center by Todd Park Mohr along with the other three members of Big Head Todd and the Monsters. Mohr wrote the song for Discovery’s return to flight mission after the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, and the song also won NASA’s Top 40 wakeup song contest.

“That was terrific,” Lindsey radioed down to Mohr. “We really appreciate it and congratulations on winning the contest.” Mohr, thanked Lindsey for his courage, bravery “and your effort in just giving all of us a better shot at knowing more. It’s very inspirational to the arts as well.”

The next launch for NASA will be STS-134 scheduled for April 19^th, 2011. This final flight for Endeavour will be a 14 day mission delivering some spare parts, as well as the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, to the International Space Station.

Videos:

Space shuttle Discovery lifted off at 4:53 p.m. EST Thursday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with Commander Steve Lindsey leading the STS-133 crew to deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module and Robonaut 2 to the space station.

STS-133 Booster Camera Views Video recorded by cameras mounted on Discovery’s twin solid rocket boosters provide unique views of the February 24 launch. Watch from lift-off to splashdown in the ocean.