'We can still do this dangerous business'

The space shuttle Discovery touches down safely at the Edwards air force base in California. Photograph: Nasa TV/AP

It wasn't quite the homecoming Nasa had in mind for the shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts, but after the troubles they've had during the 14-day adventure, the space agency is just happy to have it back on the ground safely, writes Richard Luscombe in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Florida's notoriously unreliable weather, low clouds and rain, forced four landing attempts at the Kennedy Space Centre to be scrubbed so Nasa sent it instead to a remote air force base in California's Mojave desert, where it touched at 5.12am (1.12pm BST), 53 minutes before sunrise. It's a disappointment for commander Eileen Collins and her crew, who won't now be reunited with their families for another day, and also for Nasa itself, which will have to shell out the best part of a million dollars to fly Discovery back to Florida on the back of a jumbo jet.

Even so, mission managers will still be celebrating tonight over the successful completion of America's first manned spaceflight since the Columbia disaster in February 2003. Highlights were astronaut Steve Robinson's audacious spacewalk to perform the first external repairs to a spacecraft in orbit and the most detailed imagery ever obtained of a shuttle in flight from a sensor on its robotic arm. Lead flight director Paul Hill said it proved "we can still do this dangerous business".

As for the space shuttle's future, Nasa's task now is to fix the falling foam problem that has plagued the last two missions and which led to the fleet being grounded again. The agency says it's a short term glitch and remains hopeful a fix can be found in time for the shuttle Atlantis to take off in September as planned. But there are plenty of independent experts who say it will be next year before Nasa will be ready to fly again. The shuttle, due for retirement in 2010, is crucial to the completion of the International Space Station. The clock is ticking.