#sts-121

"Discovery is towed into the Orbiter Processing Facility bay 3. Discovery was returned to NASA Kennedy Space Center on a ferry flight atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) from Edwards Air Force Base in California, arriving Aug. 21. Discovery will be towed to the Orbiter Processing Facility where the Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello still inside will be removed from the payload bay and transferred to the Space Station Processing Facility. The orbiter will then begin processing for the second Return to Flight mission, STS-121, scheduled for launch no earlier than March 2006."

Date: August 22, 2005

"KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Kicking up dust as its wheels touch down, the orbiter Discovery lands on Runway 15 at NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility, completing mission STS-121 to the International Space Station. Discovery traveled 5.3 million miles, landing on orbit 202. Mission elapsed time was 12 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes and 54 seconds. Main gear touchdown occurred on time at 9:14:43 EDT. Wheel stop was at 9:15:49 EDT. The returning crew members aboard are Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Piers Sellers, Michael Fossum, Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson. Mission Specialist Thomas Reiter, who launched with the crew on July 4, remained on the station to join the Expedition 13 crew there. The landing is the 62nd at Kennedy Space Center and the 32nd for Discovery. Discovery's landing was as exhilarating as its launch, the first to take place on America's Independence Day. During the mission, the STS-121 crew tested new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, and delivered supplies and made repairs to the International Space Station."

Photo credit: NASA/George less

Date: July 17, 2006

Astronaut Piers Sellers dies of pancreatic cancer

NASA astronaut Piers Sellers lost his battle with pancreatic cancer Dec. 23, 2016. He was 61. Photo Credit: Carleton Bailie / SpaceFlight Insider

Former NASA astronaut Piers Sellers, veteran of three Space Shuttle missions, died Friday, Dec. 23, 2016, in Houston after more than a year of battling pancreatic cancer. He was 61. (more…)

The Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-121) took off on 4 July 2006, the only launch for the shuttle program on Independence Day.