CAPE CANAVERAL —

The U.S. space shuttle Discovery, with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide on board, returned to Earth on Saturday, ending a two-week mission to deliver the main unit of Japan’s first manned space facility to the International Space Station. Discovery, with seven crew members, including Hoshide, 39, successfully landed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Saturday morning as scheduled, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.
   
On his first shuttle flight, Hoshide, cooperating with other Discovery crew members, docked the main component of Japan’s Kibo space laboratory to the space station orbiting about 400 kilometers above Earth. Kibo, which means hope in Japanese, has been built for various experiments on microgravity environment.
 

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3 Comments

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  okapake at 08:02 AM JST - 15th June

  BFD for Japan.

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  Sarge at 10:30 PM JST - 15th June

  Welcome back to Earth, Discovery.

  "BFD for Japan"

  Could you elaborate on that?

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  USNinJapan2 at 10:34 PM JST - 15th June

  Another complete and stupendous waste of money. Right Sushi?

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