Though happily retired, the editor was invited by Fox News Radio to call the play by play on Discovery's launch and subsequent landing..just like old times. I snapped up the chance and, sure enough, it all came back in a rush. The landing was beautiful:

This landing was especially important; the first since the Columbia disaster. Everything had to be perfect. As you know, it was, but the psychology of the moment was terrific.

Discovery landed in the early hours of the morning at Edwards Air Force Base, California. Try as they would, flight engineers could not get comfortable with the weather conditions at Kennedy Space Center in Florida; there were clouds and the threat of rain within 30 nautical miles of the landing site, there was worry that by the time Discovery arrived over the Florida base clouds might move in and block Eileen Collins' clear view of the runway as she made her final approach. The chances were slim that that would happen, but slim in any dimension is bad news if it happens and nobody would take that chance. So they went to California and took a $5-million hit, since that's how much it'll cost to transport the 100 ton spaceship back to Florida. It also means delay in the next launch, since Discovery must be up and ready to play backup when Atlantis launches to the space station. Atlantis did it for Discovery.

If you've never thought about it, the landing is just as dangerous as liftoff, in its own way. Forget that Columbia and its crew were lost during landing, that was because of undetected damage incurred during launch. The landing is scary all by itself. It begins halfway around the world with the shuttle flying upside and backwards somewhere over the Indian Ocean. At the right instant, the shuttle's braking engines--those two big ones up top next to the tail--are fired for a prescribed number of minutes and seconds..no more, no less. The firing time is calcuated on the shuttle's altitude, its speed and its weight. If done properly, this "braking maneuver" will slow it down as much as a couple hundred miles an hour..just enough to begin a controlled fall that will end an hour or so later on the proper runway on the other side of the world. To get to Florida, you start the descent at one time and spot, to get to California, you back up a bit..often, waiting for another orbit to get yourself aligned. In short, it's a thing of beauty.

This spaceflight had a two-fold purpose: First, it was a test hop to make certain that the changes made in shuttle operation and management were good, and in line with the recommendations of the commission that studied the Columbia disaster. For the most part, things went extremely well, save for gap fillers and a flaking tank..things that will have to be addressed before Atlantis make the next flight. The new inspection procedures are so good that they put extra pressure on flight managers to make corrections they might never have known to correct in the past..you can read more about those things in my previous column if you click on the link at the bottom of this page, or you can see pictures of those activities by clicking here.

Second, this was a supply flight for the needy International Space Station. Discovery carried 29-thousand pounds of food, clothing, experiments, machinery and other supplies to make the station whole again..at least for another six months or so. It also brought back a few tons of trash that station crews had to live with until the shuttles came back. Now, they are back, more or less, and there is talk that this is the first step on our road to the Moon and Mars. I don't know about that..I'm just happy to see them flying again.

I also also seriously disturbed about the political decision to retire these old birds on a date certain without first guaranteeing the existence of something to take their place. This government has done that before (the gap between Apollo and shuttle) and seems to have no qualms about doing it again. It is short-sighted and dangerous in an already dangerous business.

The people who deal with the shuttles think the rest of us are behind the power curve when it comes to understanding just what is going on here. They think that most of us see this as some kind of stunt or entertainment. It's not. It's deadly serious and competition is taking shape in Asia.

Discovery at rest.

One of the very best of those at the helm, Mission Manager Wayne Hale, was in a reflective mood when that subject came up the other day: "I would tell you that going into space is right at the limits of human technology," he said. "We're doing something that's extremely difficult. This is not like going to the airport and getting in a commercial airliner. This is much more complicated and much more difficult. There are only a few nations in the history of the world that have this capability and they've all had to expend quite a bit of national treasure and quite a bit of effort.

"In the future, one hopes it will become more commonplace and perhaps it will become more like commercial airline travel, but we are not there today. ... If you think this is routine, you surely don't understand what it is we're trying to do here."

Amen, Brother Hale.

Come back soon to ride the Left Seat with me.

And drop a line when you can..I'm reachable at jsairlines1@aol.com.

Jim Slade

The pictures in this column come to us courtesy of NASA Television.

Click here for a previous Left Seat column.