9 Mar 2011

Discovery lands after final space mission

The world’s most travelled space shuttle, Discovery, successfully lands at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida following its 39th and final flight.

It has returned to earth following 13 days at the International Space Station, its final mission of its 27-year career.

Discovery was delivering parts to the station and tonnes of supplies and science gear, including a ‘humanoid’ robot.

Its last flight and shipment completes the American construction side of the station, a $100 billion (£62bn) project of 16 nations that has been assembled 220 miles (350 km) above Earth since 1998.

Discovery’s retirement will soon be followed by the other two shuttles in the US fleet, due to high operating costs and to free up funds to begin work on new spaceships that can travel to the moon, asteroids and other destinations beyond the station’s orbit.

Sister ships Endeavour and Atlantis are scheduled to make their final flights to the space station in April and June to deliver the $2 billion (£1.2bn) Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particle detector and a final load of cargo.

Two other shuttles were destroyed in accidents.

Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff in 1986, killing seven astronauts. Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over Texas in 2003, killing seven astronauts.

The US will now rely on the Russian government to launch astronauts to the space station.

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