US: Nasa managers spoke of their exhilaration and relief last night after the space shuttle's perfect return to Earth brought a successful end to America's first manned spaceflight since the Columbia disaster 2½ years ago.
There was one final twist to one of the most eventful shuttle missions in history, when a landing delayed four times by poor weather in Florida was switched to the pre-dawn darkness of a remote air force base in California's Mojave desert.
It meant that commander Eileen Collins and her six fellow astronauts could not be reunited with their families until today.
The lack of a showpiece touchdown at the Kennedy Space Centre, the shuttle fleet's home base, was a minor consideration on a day that finally allowed Nasa to restore pride to the space programme.
"Today we honoured the Columbia crew. We brought Discovery home safely," said Bill Parsons, the shuttle programme manager. "It's a great day. If you want to know how I feel, it's fantastic. It's good to be us today."
Commander Collins and pilot Jim Kelly guided Discovery to a flawless landing after a 14-day mission which Nasa described as a test flight to assess more than $1 billion of safety improvements made in the wake of the Columbia tragedy which killed seven astronauts.
After a post-landing inspection, Commander Collins declared that the orbiter was "in great shape" despite the rigours of its 9.3 million km voyage to the International Space Station and several technical glitches which required the first external repairs to a spacecraft in orbit.
A greater worry is the large chunk of foam which was seen breaking off the external fuel tank at lift-off on July 26th, the same problem that doomed Columbia by striking a hole in its wing and allowing in deadly hot gases during re-entry.
No damage was caused to Discovery, but Nasa has ordered its three remaining orbiters, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, to remain on the ground until a solution is found.
During the mission, Discovery's crew restocked the International Space Station's pantries, restored its key steering system, removed tonnes of discarded equipment and trash and added a new stowage platform for spare parts.
They also for the first time checked their ship's heat shield while the shuttle was in orbit and made an impromptu repair.
Astronaut Steve Robinson was strapped on to a platform on the space station's robot arm for an unprecedented spacewalk to Discovery's belly, where he removed two protruding cloth strips from the smooth surface of the ceramic-tiled heat shield.
Landing director Leroy Cain said low clouds and the threat of thunderstorms at Cape Canaveral had made it an easier decision to call off the landing there than on Monday, when the first two attempts were also scrubbed, allowing the astronauts an extra day in space.
He added the orbiter had behaved flawlessly during its hour-long descent from an altitude of 326km, in which it resisted temperatures of up to 1,650 degrees.
Nasa will now have to spend up to $1 million giving Discovery a piggyback ride back to Florida on a converted 747 jumbo jet to complete post-mission inspections and prepare it as a back-up to the next shuttle flight, whenever Atlantis is cleared for lift-off.
Almost 250 workers will spend six days preparing Discovery for its 5,750km journey home, which could take up to 10 days in short hops.
Discovery's crew, meanwhile, were preparing for a reunion with their families and friends at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, today, and dealing with the effects of gravity for the first time in a fortnight. Each had to drink several litres of salty fluids before re-entry to help their bodies adjust.
President George Bush applauded both Nasa and the shuttle's crew. "It was an important step for Nasa as it regains the confidence of the American people and begins to transition to the new mission we've set out," he said. - (Guardian service)