Cape Canaveral: Shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven returned to Earth on Saturday after capping a successful expansion job at the international space station, which is now more spacious and robust thanks to a new billion-dollar Japanese science lab.
The shuttle swooped through a slightly cloudy sky and landed at 1515 GMT, under the control of commander Mark Kelly.
Discovery's mission spanned 14 days, 217 orbits and 9.17 million kilometres, and was described by NASA as “being about as smooth as it gets.”
Kelly and his crew accomplished everything they set out to do in orbit. They delivered and installed Japan's Kibo lab, now the space station's biggest room and most sophisticated science workshop, and dropped off a new pump that the two Russians on board used to fix their toilet.
The space station also got a new American resident who took the place of astronaut Garrett Reisman, returning home after 95 days in space.
Reisman's wife, Simone Francis, was waiting at the Kennedy Space Center. Over the past week, Reisman described in quite romantic terms how much he missed her, calling her "my favorite Earthling" and "doll face."
Although the mission itself unfolded almost flawlessly, Discovery left behind a battered launch pad on May 31.
Some 5,300 bricks flew off the flame trench when Discovery blasted away, most likely because they were not attached properly to the underlying concrete wall when the pad was built in the 1960s for the Apollo moon shots.
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