SM3A: Discovery Touchdown at Kennedy Space Center

The orbiter Discovery looks like a blue ghost as it drops from the darkness onto lighted runway 33 at KSC's Shuttle Landing Facility. After traveling more than 3, 267,000 miles (about 430 thousand kilometres) on a successful eight-day mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, the orbiter touches down at 7:00:47 p.m. EST.

Aboard are Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr., Pilot Scott J. Kelly, and Mission Specialists Steven L. Smith, C. Michael Foale (Ph.D.), John M. Grunsfeld (Ph.D.), Claude Nicollier of Switzerland and Jean-Frangois Clervoy of France, who spent the Christmas holiday in space in order to accomplish their mission before the end of 1999.