Cape Canaveral - The space shuttle Columbia returned safely from its historic flight but the first woman to command a space mission said yesterday she thought she might have to become the first commander to try a high-risk emergency landing.
NASA said "two fairly significant failures" occurred during last Friday's launch which raised questions for future missions and had the shuttle commander, Eileen Collins, men tally checking off emergency landing sites and procedures in event of an aborted mission.
A problematic computer system was steadied and a fuel leak proved manageable and the five-member crew went on to accomplish almost all its goals, including deployment of the $1.5 billion Chandra X-ray observatory.