After 15 days in space, including installation of the Node 2 "Harmony" module on the space station and some unscheduled spacewalking repairs to the station, the space shuttle Discovery landed safely in Florida at 1:02PM Eastern Time. See NASA's Image of the Day for the touchdown on Runway 33 at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center But the approach took a path NASA once said they would never do again...

The re-entry path as Discovery slowed down from its orbital velocity of 17,000 mph to its landing speed of about 250 mph took discovery near or over large cities in the Midwest and the South. NASA officials once said they were never going to take such a route again. If anything, this is a sign that things are getting back to normal. There is confidence in the ability to check the condition of the orhiter before re-entry, and its ability to get back when it's known to be in good condition. So we'll call that a positive development.

Following the Columbia accident in 2003, some of the civilian eyewitnesses who helped the investigation got together and joined the Stratofox Aerospace Tracking Team, which led to some discussion that amateurs might be called upon to observe future re-entries. That idea came to an end when it was announced there would be no more re-entries over land. As things went on, that idea was apparently not revisited, and everyone has moved on. But now that re-entries over land have resumed, the door is open should NASA want help from trained amateurs again some day.