Shuttle Discovery cleared for Florida re-entry

Cape Canaveral (Fla), Jul 17: The US space shuttle Discovery was cleared for landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today at the end of a mission meant to signal NASA's full recovery from the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere was to begin with a ''de-orbit burn'' to adjust the winged spacecraft's trajectory before it makes its scorching return under temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,700 degrees Celsius).

Discovery's return caps the second shuttle mission since Columbia, its sister ship, broke apart over Texas just 16 minutes from landing on February 1, 2003.

REUTERS