The US Space Shuttle Discovery has returned from orbit safely after mission STS-116 to the International Space Station.
Just prior to landing, the weather at the primary landing site (Kennedy Space Center) seemed like it would be outside of NASA’s limits and the secondary landing site at Edwards Airforce Base looked to have the same problem. This would have meant a landing at the seldom-used (for Shuttles anyway) Northrop strip at White Sands, New Mexico.
However, in the event, after loading several different re-entry target packages into the Shuttle’s computers, Discovery made it’s landing at dusk at KSC.
<%image(20061224-shuttle_discovery_landing.jpg|400|267|US Space Shuttle Discovery Landing at KSC after STS-116)%>
Image credit: NASA
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