After an early wakeup call this morning, the crew began landing preparations at 6:53 a.m. EST (1153 GMT). The doors of the shuttle’s payload bay were closed at 8:12 a.m. EST (1312 GMT).

The astronauts then fired Discovery’s orbital maneuvering system engines for about three minutes, in what is called a deorbit burn. This slowed the shuttle down enough for it to begin its hour-long descent.

The unmistakable sound of the arriving space shuttle echoed across Florida’s Space Coast — one last effort for Discovery one last opportunity to make its presence known before the crew could bring it to a safe halt.

“And Houston, Discovery. For the final time, wheelstop,” Commander Lindsey said when the orbiter stopped on the runway. He also thanked the Kennedy team for giving the crew a “terrific vehicle for a final flight.”

Discovery is NASA’s oldest and most-flown spacecraft, and at the end of its career, had logged about 148 million miles (238 million kilometers) worth of travel. The STS-133 mission is Discovery’s 39th and final flight.

…she’s making her final trip to space.

(And I’m already a little choked up, not gonna lie.)

“…nor the last time we saw them, as they prepared for their mission and waved good-bye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”

In honor of the adventurers aboard the Challenger, who I understand a little better each time I’m lucky enough to take to the skies, I bring you the poem (one of my very favorites) that inspired the words above:

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, I used to believe it was the years in your life that mattered most. While I still think there’s a line between risk and recklessness, I’m awfully glad I’ve shifted to the life in your years mindset.

Amazing how much mightier the view is, here.

Turns out it’s also in direct violation of the Presidential Proclamation on the subject.

Not fifteen minutes after I learned that, to what did my wondering eyes did appear, but a freshly-shaven, sharp-looking Sergeant of Marines in full dress blues, striding on down to the Armory… and raising the flag to full-staff.

*cough*

Sure glad I don’t know anybody who would do anything like that…

*whistles*