High Winds at Edwards AFB Divert Shuttle to Florida
The space shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts returned home safely Monday from a long “Star Wars” research mission, landing in Florida because of high winds at the main shuttle touchdown site in Southern California.
The spaceship glided through a slightly cloudy sky and touched down at 11:55 a.m. PDT.
“Welcome back to sunny Florida, and congratulations on an outstanding mission,” Mission Control’s Ken Bowersox told the crew.
The astronauts circled the world 134 times and traveled 3,475,000 miles during their eight days in space.
The mission encountered several problems, including the failure of two data recorders shortly after liftoff on April 28 and pointing problems with an orbiting “Star Wars” research probe.
Nevertheless, Air Force Col. John Armstrong, deputy mission director, said he was elated by the flight’s overall success.
NASA decided Monday afternoon to bring Discovery back to Kennedy Space Center after the wind picked up suddenly at Edwards Air Force Base in California, preventing a landing at the desert base’s concrete runway.
Discovery needed to land on a concrete strip to protect the Pentagon’s heavy instruments in the cargo bay and to assure a smoother landing. The cargo is valued at more than $260 million.
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