This is the first of a series of images that show the landing of the space shuttle Discovery Aug. 9, 2005. The craft is barely visible (center of photograph) as a pinprick of light in the early morning darkness.
Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California shortly after 5 a.m. local time (8 a.m. ET).
Discovery swooped through the darkness of the Mojave Desert and landed on the Edwards runway well before sunrise. It marked the conclusion of the first shuttle re-entry since the Columbia tragedy.
The detour to California came after thunderstorms in Cape Canaveral, Fla., prevented the shuttle from returning to its home base.
The switch to the opposite coast was a big disappointment for the astronauts' families, who had been waiting to greet their loved ones in Cape Canaveral. Their reunion was put on hold until Wednesday, when they all planned to meet in Houston.
In space, the crew successfully conducted three spacewalks, including one to test new tools and methods for fixing a damaged shuttle heat shield in orbit.
The Discovery crew also pulled off some fancy new flying maneuvers, flipping Discovery end over end near the space station so its two residents could zoom in with cameras as part of the exhaustive search for shuttle damage.
The shuttle was returning to Earth with more than 3.5 tons of equipment and trash from the International Space Station. The shuttle covered more than 5.8 million miles on its journey.
The touchdown marked the 50th time a shuttle has landed at Edwards, NASA's secondary choice for a landing site if Kennedy is not open.
The crew was comprised of Commander Eileen Collins, pilot Jim Kelly and mission specialists Siochi Noguchi, Andy Thomas, Wendy Lawrence, Charlie Camadra and Stephen Robinson.
Why does NASA prefer that the shuttle land at the Kennedy Space Center? It's because it costs about $1 million to ferry the shuttle back to Florida atop a specially modified Boeing 747.
Applause broke out at NASA's Mission Control as Discovery re-entered the earth's atmosphere minutes before landing.
Discovery's journey, which began with a liftoff on July 26, spanned 219 orbits of Earth and 5.8 million miles.
The shuttle astronauts spent nine days at the International Space Station, delivering much-needed supplies and replacement parts, and hauling away a 2-1/2-year backlog of trash.
Commander Eileen Collins was the only mother aboard Discovery and e-mailed her young daughter and son every day from orbit.
One of the crew members, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi, took three spacewalks during this, his first space flight. "Oh, the view is priceless," he jubilantly declared as he rode the International Space Station's robotic arm to Discovery's cargo bay. "I can see the moon."
The 80-year-old mother of astronaut Charles Camarda told reporters on the morning of the shuttle's return that if it did not get back to Earth that day, she would go and get her son herself.
The inherently dangerous ride down through the atmosphere was more anxiety-ridden than normal because of what happened to Columbia 2 1/2 years ago. But no problems were immediately reported by Mission Control.
"I hope this shows people that we're coming back," NASA spaceflight chief Bill Readdy said from Cape Canaveral following touchdown. "We've got some more work to do. We know what we need to do and we'll do it."
"Congratulations on a truly spectacular test flight," Mission Control said once Discovery came to a stop. "Welcome home, friends." Replied Commander Eileen Collins, "We're happy to be back and we congratulate the whole team for a job well done."