April 20, 2010

Candrea Thomas Kennedy Space Center, Fla 321-867-2468 candrea k thomas@nasa gov

John Yembrick Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 john yembrick-1@nasa gov

RELEASE: 10-090

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY CREW RETURNS TO EARTH AFTER FORTIFYING INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SCIENCE

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla -- Space shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts ended a 15-day journey of more than 6 2 million miles with a 9:08 a m EDT landing Tuesday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

The STS-131 mission to the International Space Station delivered science racks, new crew sleeping quarters, equipment and supplies During three spacewalks, the crew installed a new ammonia storage tank for the station's cooling system, replaced a gyroscope for the station's navigation system and retrieved a Japanese experiment from outside the Kibo laboratory for examination on Earth

Alan Poindexter commanded the flight and was joined by Pilot Jim Dutton and Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki Lindenburger is the last of three teachers selected as mission specialists in the 2004 Educator-Astronaut class to fly on the shuttle

A welcome ceremony for the astronauts will be held Wednesday, April 21, in Houston The public is invited to attend the 4 p m CDT event at Ellington Field's NASA Hangar 990

Highlights from the ceremony will be broadcast on NASA Television's Video File For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:

http://www nasa gov/ntv

With Discovery and its crew safely home, the stage is set for launch of shuttle Atlantis on its STS-132 mission, targeted to lift off May 14 Atlantis' 12-day flight will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module to the station along with six new batteries to store power gathered by the Port 6 solar arrays Shuttle mission STS-132 is the final scheduled flight of Atlantis Following STS-132, two more shuttle flights are scheduled before the fleet is retired

For more information about the STS-131 mission and the upcoming STS-132 flight, visit:

http://www nasa gov/shuttle

Two STS-131 crew members, Clay Anderson and Naoko Yamazaki, used the social medium Twitter to discuss the mission For their Twitter feeds and other NASA social media websites, visit:

http://www nasa gov/connect

Educational activities on the STS-131 mission focused on robotics and promoting careers in science, technology, engineering and math For NASA's teacher and student resources and activities related to robotics, visit:

http://www nasa gov/education/robotics

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

-end-

To subscribe to the list, send a message to: ksc-subscribe@newsletters nasa gov To remove your address from the list, send a message to: ksc-unsubscribe@newsletters nasa gov

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: example@example.com

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

https://aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/STS_ISS_STATUS/example/example com/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

<[program_url]/list/[list]>

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at:

<mailto:[list_owner_email]>

The following physical address is associated with this mailing list:

[physical_address]