STS-105 Status Report #25 – 22 Aug 2001- 1:30 PM CDT

Discovery touched down at the Kennedy Space Center today at
1:23 p.m. concluding a successful mission to carry new
residents to the International Space Station and return the
Expedition Two crew following 167 days in space.

Following a one-orbit wave-off due to a rain shower that
popped up off the end of the landing strip, STS-105 Commander
Scott Horowitz fired Discovery’s engines to begin the
shuttle’s return through the atmosphere, concluding a 4.3
million mile voyage. On Discovery’s middeck, the Expedition
Two crew – Commander Yury Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim
Voss and Susan Helms – rode home in recumbent seats designed
to lessen the effects of gravity.

Following routine medical examinations, the STS-105 crew –
Horowitz, Pilot Rick Sturckow and Mission Specialists Dan
Barry and Pat Forrester – along with the Expedition Two crew,
will be reunited with their families. All seven crewmembers
are expected back in Houston about 5 p.m. Thursday for a
public welcome home ceremony at Ellington Field.

During their 12 days on orbit, the STS-105 astronauts worked
with both the returning Expedition Two crew and newly-arrived
Expedition Three crew to transfer more than two tons of
experiment hardware, food and logistical supplies between
Discovery and the station. In addition, Barry and Forrester
performed two spacewalks to prepare the station for future
growth.

In the meantime, aboard the International Space Station, the
Expedition Three crew – Commander Frank Culbertson and
Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin – are
preparing for the arrival of a Progress 5 cargo vehicle which
is scheduled to dock to the aft docking port of the Zvezda
module of the Station about 5 a.m. tomorrow.

With the conclusion of the STS-105 mission, the next
International Space Station Status Report will be issued
Thursday morning following the arrival of the Progress 5
vehicle.