NASA officials have expressed their deep pleasure at the success of the latest shuttle mission, at a press conference shortly after Discovery landed safely on Monday (see Safe landing for space shuttle Discovery).
Even NASA boss Mike Griffin, who can exhibit Mr Spock-like detachment at times, showed some emotion at Discovery鈥檚 safe return: 鈥淚鈥檇 rather arrive at conclusions carefully and logically than to jump to them, but it鈥檚 a good day.鈥�
But officials also emphasised the challenges ahead. Before the shuttles鈥� scheduled retirement in 2010, there are 15 planned shuttle flights to complete the construction of the International Space Station (ISS), and possibly one to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
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鈥淲e don鈥檛 have any slack,鈥� said Griffin. 鈥淲e have just enough shuttle flights left to do the job, so we can鈥檛 afford to mess up.鈥�
The upcoming ISS flights are 鈥減robably the most complicated assembly flights ever attempted in human spaceflight鈥�, added, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA鈥檚 associate administrator for space operations.
Rescue mission
Currently, there are two more flights planned for 2006. The next launch is just over a month away: Atlantis could launch as early as 27 or 28 August. That would mean it being rolled out to the launch pad on 1 August.
Discovery鈥檚 next flight is due in December, but it has to be prepared to fly as a rescue mission if anything went wrong during the Atlantis mission.
The returning shuttle commander, Steve Lindsey, said on Monday: 鈥淲e鈥檙e ready to start flying shuttles on a more regular basis.鈥�
Earlier, he had inspected the underside of Discovery just after landing and said the orbiter鈥檚 heat shield did not show as many dings as after his four previous shuttle flights. 鈥淚鈥檝e done four walk-arounds and I鈥檝e never seen a vehicle that looks as clean as this one did,鈥� he said.
NASA had taken steps to reduce the amount of foam and ice that comes off the external fuel tank during launch and falls onto the orbiter鈥檚 heat shield.
The two main objectives of Discovery鈥檚 mission were to continue testing safety measures that were put into place after the Columbia accident in 2003 and to get the ISS prepared for more construction. Station assembly has been on hold since the shuttles were grounded following Columbia鈥檚 destruction.
Read all about the mission in our .
