Space shuttle Discovery and its seven-member crew touched down safely in California, ending a tensely watched 14- day mission with a perfect landing and giving a confidence boost to the U.S. space programme after the Columbia shuttle disaster, dpa reported. After the landing at a California air base on Tuesday, President George W. Bush congratulated commander Eileen Collins, her six-member crew and NASA, the U.S. space agency. "It's a great achievement," Bush said. "It's an important step for NASA as it regains the confidence of the nation." The Discovery astronauts said they were too busy piloting the shuttle to think much about their fears during the hazardous moment of fiery re-entry to Earth's atmosphere. But they said the 2003 disaster that killed seven astronauts and destroyed the Columbia shuttle during re-entry was never far from their minds. Jim Kelly, 41, who was flying the Discovery as pilot, admitted to a "moment of trepidation ... a moment of reflection on Columbia" when Collins "hit the exit burn" early Tuesday. "You wouldn't be human if it were otherwise," Kelly told reporters at a live broadcast briefing in California. The Discovery mission was crucial in rebuilding confidence in the U.S. space programme after Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003. Columbia's heat shield was damaged during take off, and NASA has spent 2 1/2 years and several hundred million dollars trying to solve the problem. But it still has not been adequately fixed, and NASA has again grounded the shuttle programme after debris fell off the fuel tank during launch, even though it did not damage Discovery. Collins, 48, said the most significant accomplishment of the Discovery mission was "just getting the shuttle flying again". --mor 1059 Local Time 0759 GMT
