Space shuttle Discovery lands Safely in Florida at Kennedy Space Center

Will post even more pics later. Come back. Awesome landing. Awesome machine!

CAPE CANAVERAL, United States (AFP) - Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center here after worries about weather had scotched an earlier landing time.

The landing concluded a nearly 13-day successful mission that advanced construction of the International Space Station (ISS) in four space walks, including one added at the last moment to fix a stuck solar panel array.

The 2232 GMT landing came at the end of a 66-minute descent during which the shuttle plunged at more than 26,500 kilometers (16,500 miles) an hour as it descended through the Earth's atmosphere.

The shuttle gave off a double sonic boom as it descended through the early evening skies to the runway on Florida's Atlantic coast.

Discovery carried seven astronauts, six from the United States and one from the European Space Agency, Christer Fuglesang, Sweden's first astronaut.

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had hoped weather conditions would improve enough in Florida to avoid having to land the space shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base in California or the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

A landing at either location in the western United States would have meant NASA would have to fly the shuttle to Florida, in the southeast, on the back of a modified Boeing 747 plane, which would cost some 1.7 million dollars.

There was also a worry about time running out in the mission, now in its 13th day. A landing by Saturday at the latest would be required because of dwindling electrical supplies on the shuttle.

The Discovery team spent eight days at the station, rewiring it and attaching a two-ton truss to its girder-like structure.

The crew also added a day and the extra space walk Monday to shake loose a solar panel array that had gotten stuck as it was being folded.

Earlier Friday NASA officials awakened Discovery's crew to the song "Home for the Holidays," to begin preparations for the return to Earth.

"Good morning, Discovery," the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, said to the seven crew members after their musical wake-up call.

"We hope you agree with us that 'There's no place like home for the holidays,' because we hope to see you back here on Earth later this afternoon."

"We can't agree more," replied Commander Mark Polansky.

After this mission, NASA plans 13 more shuttle flights -- including five in 2007 -- to complete construction of the International Space Station by 2010, when the three-aircraft shuttle fleet is due to be retired.

ISS construction fell years behind schedule after the 2003 Columbia tragedy when the spacecraft disintegrated minutes ahead of landing, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

NASA suspended the shuttle program to deal with safety problems. The space shuttle Atlantis mission in September marked the resumption of ISS construction.