June 6, 1999
Web posted at: 2:27 a.m. EDT (0627 GMT)

In this story: Crew releases Starshine Station prepared for long-term occupants RELATED STORIES, SITES

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (CNN) -- Space shuttle Discovery and its crew made a rare middle-of-the-night landing Sunday after completing its mission at the International Space Station.

Discovery touched down on Kennedy Space Center's floodlighted runway just after 2 a.m. EDT, ending a journey of nearly 4 million miles.

Because of rain offshore, Mission Control had waited until nearly the last minute before giving the seven astronauts the go-ahead to fire the braking engines and come home. They cheered the news.

Commander Kent Rominger and his crew spent six of their 10 days in orbit at the new space station. They left 2 tons of tools, water, clothes and other supplies for the first permanent crew, due to arrive next spring.

Before departing the station on Thursday, the astronauts also fixed a broken radio, replaced flawed battery packs, and made it quieter by installing mufflers over noisy fans.

This was only the second crew to visit the orbiting outpost. The first crew connected the station's two components in December. And it will be this December before shuttle astronauts arrive with more supplies. First, the Russians must launch their long-delayed service module; that's scheduled for November.

The crew's last orbital task was Saturday's release of Starshine, a 19-inch sphere covered with 878 small, circular aluminum mirrors that were polished by schoolchildren.

The sphere is meant to catch light from the sun and reflect it to Earth.

Discovery, below, and the International Space Station separate after undocking

Students from around the world will track Starshine during the six months it circles Earth. By the end of the year, it will plunge through the atmosphere and burn up.

NASA estimates that as many as 25,000 elementary, middle and high school students from around the world will plot the Starshine orbit, incorporating their observations into science and math curricula and sharing their data on the Internet.

Discovery's crew shifted their attention to the trip home after spending nearly a week getting the space station ready for its first long-term occupants, who are to arrive next year.

The crew enthused over the atmosphere inside the new outpost, praising its "new car feel."

Crewmember Ellen Ochoa said it "should be pretty comfortable" for its future occupants.

Discovery and its crew blasted into orbit May 27 and reached the space station two days later. The mission was the first of at least 45 space shuttle dockings that will be needed to complete construction of the ISS over a five-year period.

NASA's next trip to the space station is scheduled for December.

The estimated $40 billion to $60 billion project is a cooperative effort among 16 nations, led by the United States and Russia, to build a permanent research platform in space.