Coming Home.

From NASA:

About 3:35 p.m. EST Thursday, flight controllers at the Mission Control Center in Houston told Commander Mark Polansky that the Mission Management Team had cleared Space Shuttle Discovery for re-entry. The decision came after analysis of data collected during Wednesday’s inspection of Discovery’s heat shield. Discovery’s first landing opportunity is scheduled at 3:56 p.m. EST Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. If weather does not cooperate, six more opportunities at three landing sites are available. The Friday weather forecast currently calls for a chance of rain and low clouds at Kennedy, potential strong crosswinds at Edwards Air Force Base in California and acceptable landing conditions at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The last opportunity at Kennedy is at 5:32 p.m. Three exist at Edwards – 5:27 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8:36 p.m. Two are available at White Sands – 5:27 p.m. and 7:02 p.m. All three sites will be activated. Landing opportunities also are available Saturday at all three sites.

I've been watching NASA TV and following along with this mission since the day of the launch. I forgot to mention here, but a friend and I were lucky enough to catch sight of Discovery on the night it launched. (From Delaware!)
There in the Eastern sky, at exactly the time and position NASA said she would be, we saw the orange glow streaking across the sky. By the time I made the 10 minute drive home from our viewing point and checked on the shuttles location on NASA TV, she was over Africa. Incredible!

I vow to go see a launch before the current Shuttle is mothballed for good.

Having watched so much NASA TV, I've come to be able to recognize the various crew members voices, as well as whoever happens to be running the CAPCOM at the current time. It's been such a pleasure to watch, and I learned more about the mission and the space program in the past 2 weeks than I have any time before it.

Here's to happy landings and blue skies, Discovery!