Discovery Touches Down Safely

Pam Melroy became only the second woman to safely land a space shuttle as the Discovery touched down at Cape Canaveral, Fla., at 1:01pm today. The touchdown capped a blistering 15-day mission during which the shuttle crew attached a new room to the international space station and repaired damaged solar panels, CNN reports.

The crew's success on those critical repairs means that the European-made Columbus laboratory, the next step in the station's development, can be launched on schedule. Discovery—carrying home astronaut Clayton Anderson after 152 days aboard the space station—followed a landing route that sent it hurtling over the continental US for the first time since the Columbia disaster in 2003. (More Pamela Melroy stories.)