The six crew members of the space shuttle Discovery safely returned to its home Cape Canaveral、Florida、on July 16.

Within hours of the smooth touchdown, NASA was looking ahead to the next shuttle launch in six weeks and the return to construction work on the half-finished space station.

Discovery's commander, Steven Lindsey, who took a walk around the shuttle after landing, said he had never seen one look so clean and undamaged after a spaceflight.

Lindsey noted that both of the mission's major objectives were accomplished: completing tests of the shuttle and its redesigned fuel tank, which now carries less foam, and readying NASA to resume space station construction.

"We're ready to go assemble station," Lindsey said in the shorthand typical of NASA engineers. "And we're ready to start flying shuttles on a more regular basis."

The Japan Times Weekly: July 22, 2006
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