Jacqui Goddard, Times reporter, was with Nasa chiefs at the Kennedy Space Center as they watched Discovery glide back to earth.

"It was what Nasa calls a picture-perfect landing. You could really feel the tension that was here as the shuttle made its hour-long descent - it fell totally silent at times.

"So there's a great sense of relief. This has been a trying mission for Nasa, but ultimately a very successful one. It's been a difficult time for everyone involved in getting Discovery back to Earth.

"Dr Mike Griffin, the head of Nasa, said after the launch that he wouldn't breathe out until he had 'wheel-stop' on the ground and Commander Eileen Collins and her crew were safe. There were a lot of people here who were exhaling as it happened.

"It's been fascinating to live minute-by-minute with those people on Discovery and then to watch this today, the ultimate rollercoaster ride. The shuttle literally freefalls to Earth after slowing down its orbital speed, and then makes the transition from spacecraft to aircraft.

"And the view from the window would have been spectacular as they rushed through the upper atmosphere at 17,000 miles an hour, a fireball of orange and red. Then only in the last three minutes did Eileen Collins, the Commander, actually take over the controls for a manual landing with the co-pilot, James Kelly.

"When it glided onto the tarmac, it was wheel-down and drag chute deployed and, the Nasa announcer said: 'Discovery is home.' There was an enormous round of applause. I was sitting next to one of the engineers who had worked on Discovery and you could see what a special moment it was for him, he was choked up. 'What a mission!' he said.

"Of course, it's quite a disappointment having it land in California, although the relief of having it on the ground far outweighs that. It means an enormous amount of work for Nasa, which already sent 78 staff across the country to California yesterday to wait. They're the people who do a lot of the processing and tidying up - although not yet, they can't open the doors for at least 30 minutes while they check for gases. And parts of it are going to be excruciatingly hot.

"Another 175 people, known as the turnaround team, will fly from Florida to California tomorrow to help prepare for the piggyback ride on a Jumbo jet, a special Jumbo that Nasa has. It will take them 6-10 days to get ready for that flight and there will be a lot of attention to detail needed. They don't like to get rain on the shuttle, so they have to plan their route carefully and bring it back the width of America without hitting rain showers that could damage the vehicle.

"And then they have to sort out the problem with the foam coming off the external fuel tank that is jettisoned soon after launch. Nasa seems reasonably upbeat about fixing the problem, but in reality it has had two and a half years to do so and they still can't fix the problem. It's really a question of the engineers going back to the drawing board and seeing if they can find a way round it so they can get another shuttle, Atlantis, back in the air by the end of the year."

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