Discovery's triumphant astronauts walked into a rousing celebration as nearly 700 people crowded into an airplane hangar, madly waving flags and elaborate "Welcome Home!" signs".
But there was no sign of an Australian flag as a tribute to Andy Thomas, the Adelaide-born member of the space shuttle's crew of seven.
The crowd waved scores of American flags for the five US astronauts and some even went to the trouble of finding Japanese flags for Soichi Noguchi, one of the crew's spacewalking astronauts.
Discovery returned to Earth on Tuesday after being the first space shuttle blasted into orbit since the Columbia disaster of 2003.
It was Thomas' fourth space mission, but if he was disappointed at not seeing at least one flag from down under among the forest of stars and stripes, he didn't show it.
Addressing the crowd, he showed little emotion as he expressed gratitude on behalf of the entire crew.
"I share the hope that it won't be too long before another crew stands here to tell about the adventures that you have made possible for them," he said.
"So thank you all for the work that you have done for this agency (NASA) and this country."
Then, as professional as ever, he talked of one of the major technical aspects of their trouble-plagued 14-day mission.
"I'd like to acknowledge the work done by the robotics teams," he said.
"All those people who did this brand new development of running the boom and the sensor systems for the inspection that made this flight particularly successful."
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told the astronauts, their families, colleagues and fans: "In the last two and a half years, we have been through the very worst that manned space flight can bring us, and over the past two weeks we have seen the very best.
Rookie astronaut Noguchi was elated.
"As a rookie astronaut, I could not ask for more," he said.
"We had three spacewalks, two bonus extension days in space and one great crew."
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas joined the astronauts and told them the nation's space program needs more cheerleaders.
"Because of the courage of Discovery's crew, and the commitment of everyone at NASA and the entire space community, our generation has an opportunity to go farther into space and further into the void, to do the impossible and answer the unsolvable," DeLay said.
"For that chance, we all owe the crew more than our thanks."
But while the homecoming has been filled with excitement for what mission controllers declared a "truly spectacular test flight," uncertainty remains for the future of the shuttle program.
Shortly after Discovery blasted off July 26, a chunk of foam insulation fell from the fuel tank - the very thing that was supposed to have been fixed after dooming Columbia.
The foam missed Discovery, but NASA grounded all shuttle flights until engineers fix the problem.
NASA ground crews inspected Discovery after its return from orbit and found it in good condition, an official said at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Centre at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
"It's as clean a vehicle as I've seen after landing," said Dean Schaaf, landing support convoy commander.
Technicians counted 101 dings and divots, including 20 that were larger than one inch.
Schaaf said the numbers were similar to the results of other shuttle post-landing inspections.
A preliminary inspection of the shuttle's thermal blanket under the commander's cockpit window showed that it remained intact during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
The protective blanket was a bit frayed and protruded outward but showed no scorch marks, Schaaf said.
NASA initially worried that the torn thermal blanket could come loose during re-entry and strike the shuttle. But the space agency decided against a fourth spacewalk to repair it after engineers concluded the chance of that happening was remote.
As the astronauts celebrated, technicians at Edwards were busy preparing Discovery for its return to Florida.
The cross-country trip atop a modified Boeing 747 takes a week of preparations and is expected to cost NASA about $US1 million ($A1.31 million).