WASHINGTON - The space shuttle Discovery headed home yesterday after upgrading the Hubble space telescope with equipment scientists hope will open a window on the creation of the universe. Discovery astronauts released Hubble into space early yesterday following a mission NASA considered a complete success. "Hubble is free," said the shuttle commander, Mr Ken Bowersox, as Discovery's cameras took pictures of the telescope drifting away with the Earth spinning below providing a spectacular backdrop.
NASA chief Daniel Goldin congratulated the seven astronauts for their "tremendous achievement". "You have opened a new window on the world," he said.
At mission control in Houston, Texas, the scientific programme director, Mr Ed Weiler, told journalists the Hubble upgrade had opened a new horizon for scientists. "We will look further into the universe," he said. "We don't know what we are going to see."
The telescope was released at 6.41 a.m. Irish Time and Discovery embarked on the journey back to Earth where the craft is expected to land early tomorrow.