By By Jean-Louis SANTINI AFP - Friday, November 9, 7:39
CAPE CANAVERAL (AFP) - The U.S. shuttle Discovery with seven astronauts on board s is raised without incident Wednesday in Florida successfully concluded one of their most ambitious and risky to build the International Space Station (ISS).
The wheels of the orbiter touched the runway at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral at 18:01 hours GMT as planned under blue skies with mild temperatures and after making 238 revolutions around the Earth and traveled about 10 million kilometers.
Discovery stopped rolling, "said the commander Pamela Melroy the second woman in the history of the program which carries out this responsibility.
"Congratulations Pam for this wonderful mission and a super-landing," replied a controller of the Centre in Houston, Texas (south).
An hour ago, Pamela Melroy had lit two small motors Discovery, above the southern Indian Ocean, for 1.58 minutes to brake from 240 km / hour speed of more than 25,000 km / h, allowing the shuttle to drop out of its orbit 350 km above the Earth.
She then began the plunge 62 minutes to Florida. The temperature on the belly, nose and wing leading edge has reached some places more than 1,500 degrees Celsius under the influence of friction on dense layers of the atmosphere from an altitude of 130 km and more of 8,000 km of Florida.
nose up to 40 degrees, then Discovery descended to 9,000 feet per minute gradually transforming itself into a hundred-ton glider.
Discovery and its seven astronauts, including two women and an Italian from the European Space Agency, Paulo Nespoli, made its approach, flying over the United States from the coast northwest before reaching Florida. His arrival was marked by a double sonic boom.
is the first time that the shuttle has crossed the U.S. from west to east to come to land in Florida, from Columbia, which disintegrated during its return to the atmosphere on 1 February 2003.
All previous approaches had been made by the Gulf of Mexico.
Launched October 23, Discovery and its crew delivered the Harmony pressurized module of 14.3 tons for the installation of the next European Columbus and Japanese laboratory Kibo.
The astronauts also carried out the delicate movement of a tower of 16 tons (P6) to install it at another location of the Station.
They also conducted a successful repair impromptu unprecedented and potentially dangerous because of the risk of electrocution, a wing of the damaged solar array during its deployment.
The launch of Discovery had sparked debate over whether it was too risky after the discovery of microscopic cracks on the surface of three of the 44 panels of thermal protection to the leading edge of the wings of the orbiter.
The independent center of engineering at NASA had recommended a delay of two months of shooting to replace these panels, which would upset the already tight schedule to finish the ISS by 2010, date of retirement of the three orbiters.
Both inspections made by orbiting astronauts showed that the shuttle could return safely to the atmosphere.
The next flight of an orbiter, Atlantis, is scheduled Dec. 6 to deliver Columbus.
The Japanese Kibo laboratory will be delivered in two parts in February and April 2008 aboard a space shuttle.
The ISS, a proposed $ 100 billion involving 16 countries, is considered essential to prepare for future manned missions to Mars and beyond.
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