The space shuttle Discovery landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California a short time ago.
You could almost hear the collective gasp of relief as the shuttle came out of the darkness and made a perfect landing, rolling to a stop and settling onto the concrete as NASA rolled out the red carpet.
The stakes in this successful landing of the damaged shuttle were never higher. If Discovery had been destroyed during re-entry, it would have been the end of the shuttle program; Endeavor and Atlantis would have been retired from service the next day and not in 2010 as scheduled.
Hopefully NASA is working on the next generation of spacecraft to replace the shuttle fleet and will have it ready to fly in five years or sooner if something goes wrong on a future shuttle mission.
Congratulations to NASA on getting the shuttle and its crew home safely.
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