spacetoday.net: Shuttle lands in California

Posted: Tue, Aug 9, 2005, 10:36 AM ET (1436 GMT)
STS-114: landing (NASA)

The space shuttle Discovery landed successfully in California early Tuesday after weather prevented two landing attempts in Florida. Discovery touched down on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 8:11 am EDT (1211 GMT). NASA diverted the shuttle to California after waving off two landing attempts earlier in the morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida because of unsettled weather near the center. The safe landing brought the STS-114 mission, the first shuttle mission since the Columbia accident two and a half years ago, to a successful end. Landing in California will add several days to the preparation time foe Discovery, which must be ready to fly any potential rescue mission when Atlantis launches on STS-121. That launch is scheduled for no earlier than September 22, depending on when foam shedding problems that took place on Discovery's launch are corrected.