Discovery crew: See you Monday
2005-08-07 11:17
Cape Canaveral - Discovery's astronauts said on the eve of Monday's planned landing the 13-day mission was a success, the space shuttle was in great shape and the crew was ready to return home.
"We have definitely accomplished out mission objectives," commander Eileen Collins said in an interview with NBC television early on Sunday.
"It is time to end the mission and we'll be coming home tomorrow," she said about 24 hours ahead of the scheduled landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"I think Discovery is in great shape and performed well," she told ABC television during a series of interviews with US networks.
She said the crew would be thinking of their seven colleagues who lost their lives when Columbia burst into flames upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, 2003, but will focus on their own safe return.
"We're going to have thoughts about Columbia, but we'll be very focused on the job at hand," she told CBS.
Pilot James Kelly agreed.
"I think we are in great shape. I trust the folks on the ground that told us we are all clear to go. We're ready to go home tomorrow," he said.
Another of the seven Discovery crew, mission specialist Wendy Lawrence said the space flight was the busiest of the four she has been on.
"It's been a challenging mission, a very difficult one," she said.
Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who performed three space walks during the mission, was evidently delighted. Asked if he had a message for his family as Discovery readied for the critical re-entry stage, Noguchi smiled and said: "See you tomorrow."
"It's been a great trip and we'll come back with a lot of stories," he told CBS.
He also told CNN he enjoyed "every minute" of the almost nine days the crew spent docked to the International Space Station, which is manned by a Russian and an American. "I hope people all over the world will get the message that we can work together for a peaceful cause."