LIVE: STS-120 Flight Day 16 - EOM - Re-entry and Landing

[voyager]

Standing outside we had a stiff wind out of the north here at KSC.

[Felix]

[Felix]

[Kel]

I think headwinds were about the max allowed for landing? Any landing you walk away from is a good landing in my book. Great job Pambo!

[Becker67]

kimmern123 - 7/11/2007  6:38 PM

What is the most challenging aspect of a strong headwind landing, especially considering its a really heavy brick she was flying.

Important thing with a strong headwind is to have a higher than normal landing speed. Might have steepened the glide in to compensate. Ordinarily you would increase velocity but not so easy to do with the shuttle.

[Hans_ACS]

First post of me on this terrific forum ! Great landing by Pam, especially under these windy conditions. Better to touch her down rather 'quickly' than 'hovering' too long I guess.

Greetz from Belgium and keep the good work guys !

[Andy_Small]

nathan.moeller - 7/11/2007  12:43 PM

Let's not get hung up on a rough touchdown guys.  She flew that bird perfectly; especially when you consider how tough this mission has been.  Great job Pam!

couldn't have said it better.  I thought it looked rough but then I remembered I'm not certified to land the orbiter so I more than likely  don't know what rough is!

[ShuttleDiscovery]

Textbook landing Pam. Well done to everyone who made this mission possible...

[Andy_Small]

Pam signing off.

[ShuttleDiscovery]

Images already in the KSC media gallery!

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images//medium/07pd3152-m.jpg

[Andy_Small]

ASP taken over control of Discovery

Great job to everyone aboard, and everyone on the ground, what an amazing flight  Given the winds on landing I think she greased it in about as well as you could ask, I'm just glad Discovery has continued to keep her number of landings equal to her number of take-offs!  

[vt_hokie]

Very smooth compared to an Orion touchdown, I would imagine!

[Andy_Small]

MCC-H PAO handing over to KSC PAO

[Kel]

vt_hokie - 7/11/2007  12:55 PM

Very smooth compared to an Orion touchdown, I would imagine!

Ask the folks who landed in a Soyuz a few weeks ago about a rough landing  

[Andy_Small]

waiting for discovery to be downgraded to Full operations.  A Crew is waiting to ge the time sensitive experiments on the Mid Deck

as well the Metal filings from the SARJ

[Andy_Small]

And she's been downgraded and safed

[daveglo]

Somebody keep an eye on the lightsaber.

[Andy_Small]

daveglo - 7/11/2007  12:59 PM

Somebody keep an eye on the lightsaber.

LOL Yeah

Senior MGMT waiting for crew so they can all look at Her

[Andy_Small]

hatch opend at 1:29 EST

6 of 7 crew members off.  PAO thinks Pambo is till on her Ship

like a good comander