Shuttle, With Satellite Aboard, Returns Safely

Space shuttle Discovery safely returned to Earth a day late Tuesday, carrying a satellite loaded with data about the planet’s ozone layer.

After a 12-day, 4.7-million-mile voyage, Discovery swooped through a pale sky and rolled down the runway minutes after sunrise.

Throughout the morning, NASA had kept close watch on the hazy sky over Kennedy. But unlike on Monday, when flight controllers postponed the landing out of concern for fog that never formed, the conditions were judged to be safe.

The five U.S. astronauts and one Canadian accomplished all their objectives in orbit: releasing and retrieving the ozone-monitoring satellite, testing a small robot arm and other equipment intended for the future space station, and observing the Hale-Bopp comet.

“We’re all excited about the science that we achieved on this mission,” said astronaut Jan Davis. “That does make it really special.”

Their No. 1 priority was the satellite.

Davis deployed it within hours of Discovery’s launch Aug. 7 so it could measure atmospheric temperatures and gases, including those responsible for ozone depletion, without disruptions from the shuttle. She picked it back up Saturday.

During its nine days of free flight, the satellite collected enough data to fill nearly 1,000 pounds of computer disks. Only a tiny fraction was transmitted to ground controllers, just enough to show that the instruments worked.

Especially tantalizing for researchers is the surprisingly large amount of hydroxyl and thus water vapor that an ultraviolet telescope on the satellite detected above the northern latitudes.