HOUSTON ? NASA's space shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 5:53 p.m. local time (0053 GMT) on Friday.
The shuttle successfully made the steep descent ? at an angle seven times more acute than a commercial jet ? through thin cloud to runway 22 at the desert base.
Shortly after touchdown, NASA deployed teams of white-suited inspectors to scour the outside of the space craft to make sure it was undamaged and the astronauts could disembark safely.