Columbia Is Back After Quick Trip
With the first female commander at the controls, space shuttle Columbia returned to Earth late Tuesday after a quick trip to orbit to drop off the world’s most powerful X-ray telescope.
Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, 42, landed the shuttle at 11:20 p.m., EDT, the first woman ever to do so. The runway was illuminated with xenon lights for the rare night touchdown, and the moon was nearly full.
“Welcome home,” Mission Control said as the shuttle rolled to a stop. “Eileen, to you and the crew, just an outstanding job deploying Chandra [the telescope] and bringing Columbia home for a beautiful landing.”
The landing--only the 12th in darkness out of 95 shuttle flights--went much more smoothly than Friday’s launch, which came after two delays and was plagued by a possible hydrogen fuel leak and a short circuit. Neither problem affected the trip home.
At five days, it was NASA’s shortest planned mission in nine years.
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