So by my calculations we're now within an hour of Space Shuttle Discovery's touchdown at Edward's Air Force base.

The Newsmedia have been treating to the story as a kind of sci-fi suspense thriller, edging everyone on to watch what will either be a (and here's hoping) ridiculously ordinary landing out of the dark Californian sky, or (and let's hope not) a fiery streak of light that stretches across the North American continent.

So as we count down the minutes now to landing, what are your thoughts? What are your hopes for the NASA space program after this mission? And what do you think of the merits, if any, of future human space exploration?

(note: this post will be updated as events come to hand.)


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Don't forget, you can watch NASA tv by following this link (realplayer) or here. (windows media player.)

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It's 7.58 EDT and Discovery is under 1000 miles from Edwards AFB.

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Discovery seems to have made it through re-entry. It's 360 miles to touchdown.

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7.5 mins to touchdown.


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1000ft to go. Everything looks good.

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Discovery is home. The landing looked great, right on the mark.

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So, now the questions begin. Is there still a future for manned flight so long as the most capable vehicle (the Soyuz is only good for transporting humans sans cargo) for doing so is plagued by safety issues?

Will it take a redesign of the shuttle to get ourselves back into space long-term? Or do we need to make the larger leap to Mars?