STS-124: A Mission in Pictures

By Nancy Atkinson - June 14, 2008 at 11:43 AM UTC | Missions
1249.jpg

Always a beautiful sight, the space shuttle Discovery touched down safely at 11:15 a.m. EDT, on Saturday, June 14, 2008, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During the 13-day mission, Discovery and the crew of STS-124 delivered the new component Kibo, the Japanese Experiment Module, to the International Space Station. Mission managers say Discovery looks to be in good shape following the mission, and the crew is doing well, too. Even Garrett Reisman, who spent over 90 days on the ISS, joined the rest of the crew in walking around on the runway and surveying the shuttle. After a successful mission, its always fun to look back at some of the great images, so here's a few...

Astronaut Ron Garan, STS-124 mission specialist, participates in the mission's first EVA to get ready to add the Kibo Japanese Pressurized Module to the space station.

That's two domes and two space helmets. Mark Kelly (right), STS-124 commander, and Garrett Reisman, assist astronauts Mike Fossum (left) and Ron Garan in the Quest Airlock of the International Space Station to help them get ready for an EVA.

A good look at two of the ISS solar arrays, which provide power to the station.

The ISS keeps growing, and with the addition of the Kibo lab, its actually getting pretty spacious on board the station.

The crew of the ISS took this image of the shuttle as it departed from the station, showing the now empty payload bay.

And likewise, the shuttle crew took this image of the ISS, showing the new configuration with Kibo now part of the station.

And here's where it all started: the launch of Discovery on May 31, 2008.

See all the images from the mission

here.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com