And we have touchdown!

Discovery is back on earth as of 9:14 am today. It is a good thing too because there had better have been a good reason for me to have gotten up at 4 "friggin" o'clock this morning! I am exhausted! I really did not think it was going to land today. It was overcast even at 4 am and the day did not seem to be improving. In fact, when they called "go" for the deorbit burn (about an hour before landing) I was shocked. Once they do that burn there is no where to go but down. They don't have enough fuel to achieve orbit again. Do or Die kids!
Anywho, I worked Near Real Time Console for this launch so all my commitments were completed 20 minutes before landing. So, my friend and coworker Mike decided to sneak out to the viewing deck on top of the ROCC and check out the landing. Well, we get up there and it is so flippin cloudy out I wonder how the heck the astronauts are even going to be able to see the runway. We heard the sonic booms 7 minutes or so before we ever got a glimpse and it was a short glimpse at that. We could barely see it round the runway but we did get to see it. I think the sonic booms are the coolest part anyway. So, the orbiter lands and not 5 mintues later down pour. I kid you not, it started raining almost immediately after the landing! That is messed up because we are not supposed to land with precipitation with 35 miles of the shuttle landing facility! But like I said once they do that burn it is showtime and they are coming home whether we like it or not. All in all it was an exciting landing and I am very glad I don't have to do this tomorrow!
Just a little added thing, this is a photo of the hurricane currently in the Pacific as photographed by the Discovery astronauts. I love the pictures of weather taken from space. They really show us how big these storms can get.