PAO: Now 1,100 feet, 1.4 nautical miles… wheels are down… and locked… we have touchdown… nose gear now coming down… touchdown. Discovery now rolling out on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center. After a 2.5 million-mile service call the crew of 51-A is home.
Discovery touched down at 7:00 am EST, ending a 2.5 million-mile journey after 126 orbits during 7 days, 23 hours, 45 minutes, 54 seconds.
PAO: Just had a report that our entry time was four seconds off.
Hauck: …. we have wheel stop.
PAO: Roger, wheel stop. Looks like an o.k. pass all the way.
Hauck: Okay. We’ll get into the post landing…
November 18: Two wayward satellites retrieved from the space Shuttle cargo bay were described by technicians as being in good shape aside from a few nicks. The Palapa B2 and Westar 6 returned to KSC on November 16 aboard Discovery concluding the first space salvage mission. A few solar cells were nicked when astronauts Joe Allen and Dale Gardner wrestled the satellites into the cargo bay during two space walks. The satellites were moved to a hangar where they will be serviced, including removal of volatile hydrazine fuel used in small control rockets. Later this month, they will be taken to the Hughes Aircraft plant in El Segundo, California, for renovation. ( TODAY, Nov. 19, 1984)
November 20: Discovery and the two retrieved satellites it carried back from orbit are hardly the worse for wear, NASA said. "It (Discovery) really looks very clean;" said NASA Official Jim Harrington. "It's hard to tell that the vehicle has even flown two times. It's in excellent shape." Harrington described Discovery's condition as “more favorable" than that seen following 13 previous shuttle flights. As workers continued servicing Discovery, which landed at KSC on November 16, engineers were able to begin assessing the condition of the Palapa B-2 and Westar 6 spacecraft that came back with the shuttle. "They look remarkably well," NASA Cargo Integration Chief Jim Weir said.
Harrington said no unusual damage occurred to Discovery's thermal protection tiles during the latest flight. Engineers were concerned that an underlying material may have deteriorated as it has on the Challenger. They believe the deterioration occurred because of repeated applications of an intrusive Waterproofing Chemical called xylene. Harrington said 3,588 tiles had been removed from Challenger's underside and officials expected that another 400 or so tiles would still have to be pulled and replaced on the craft. (Today, Nov. 21, 1984)
Tim Furniss "Space Shuttle Log" (1986), p.65: A jubilant Jesse Moore, NASA's Associate Administrator for Spaceflight, acclaimed the mission as the most important and significant accomplishment in the Shuttle programme. (...) The astronauts were later presented with the Lloyd's Silver Medal for their work. Anna Fisher was only the second woman to receive the award. Instituted in 1893, the Medal goes to those whose "extraordinary exertions have contributed to the preservation of property from evils of all kinds."