spacetoday.net: Shuttle lands in Florida

Posted: Sat, Mar 28, 2009, 5:02 PM ET (2102 GMT)
STS-119: landing (NASA/KSC)

The space shuttle Discovery landed in Florida Saturday afternoon, ending a nearly two-week assembly mission to the International Space Station. Discovery landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:13 pm EDT (1913 GMT), one orbit later than planned because of weather conditions at the landing site. Discovery lifted off from KSC on March 15 on mission STS-119, docking with the ISS two days later. The main purpose of the mission was to add the final set of solar panels to the station's truss, ensuring that the station has enough power to support a six-person crew. Discovery also returned home with astronaut Sandra Magnus, who spent four months on the station; her place was taken by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who came to the station on Discovery.