To enormous relief, the space shuttle Discovery landed today at Edwards Air Force Base in California, safely completing Nasa’s first shuttle mission since Columbia blew apart two and a half years ago.

"Discovery is home," said Nasa Mission Control as the shuttle gently touched down at 1311 BST in the early morning darkness of the Mojave Desert.

"Happy to be back," replied Commander Eileen Collins, who piloted the shuttle in the final stages of its return to Earth.

As Discovery came to a stop, a fleet of vehicles rushed out to runway 22 of the air base, the back-up landing site for the Nasa shuttle programme. The desert installation was called into action this morning after Discovery missed three opportunities to land in Florida because of bad weather and the shuttle will now have to be taken back Cape Canaveral on top of a specially-adapted jumbo jet.

The successful descent began at 1206 BST, when, more than 200 miles above the Indian Ocean, Discovery fired its braking rockets and flipped onto its back to begin its turbulent, one-hour freefall through the atmosphere.

Nasa engineers watched the ghostly, infra-red image of the shuttle grow from a dot to its recognisable shape as it plummetted through the upper reaches of the atmosphere and performed a series of turns to reduce its speed from 18,000mph.

Discovery glowed white as the leading edges of the spacecraft and its delicate thermal tiles - the source of so much concern during its mission - successfully withstood temperatures of more than 1650C (3000F) as it fell through what Nasa calls the "Entry Interface" above the Pacific Ocean.

Just over a minute before landing, Ms Collins brought the shuttle through its final turn and announced, "Discovery has the runway in sight."

Images broadcast from the head-up display of the shuttle showed the runways of the Edwards Air Force Base glowing brightly under the one billion candlepower xenon lights that guided Discovery home.

"Main gear touched down... Parachute deployed... Nose gear touched down.... Discovery is home," said Mission Control as the shuttle finally landed after 13 tense days in space and 5.8 million miles of orbits.

"Discovery, congratulations on a truly spectacular test flight," radioed Mission Control to the relieved crew shortly afterwards.

Commanders Collins later admitted as she stood in front of the giant craft at California’s Edwards Air Force that she and her crew were relieved to be back on Earth.

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