Discovery returned to earth on a wing and a prayer, rolling to a stop at Edwards Air Force Base, California 13 days 21 and one half days after its July 26th launch.
NASA posted this mission summary:
Discovery spent two weeks in space, where the crew demonstrated new methods to inspect and repair the Shuttle in orbit. The crew also delivered supplies, outfitted and performed maintenance on the International Space Station. A number of these tasks were conducted during three spacewalks.
In an unprecedented event, spacewalkers were called upon to remove protruding gap fillers from the heat shield on Discovery's underbelly. In other spacewalk activities, astronauts installed an external platform onto the Station’s Quest Airlock and replaced one of the orbital outpost’s Control Moment Gyroscopes.
Inside the Station, the STS-114 crew conducted joint operations with the Expedition 11 crew. They unloaded fresh supplies from the Shuttle and the Raffaello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module. Before Discovery undocked, the crews filled Raffeallo with unneeded items and returned to Shuttle payload bay.
Discovery's mission was successful. According to Florida Today.
Even though Discovery performed with near perfection, NASA was lucky. Foam insulation that fell off Discovery's fuel tank during ascent and almost struck the ship in a near-repeat of Columbia's catastrophic damage.
NASA failed to solve the foam debris problem in the 2 1/2 years following the loss of Columbia. That is a problem NASA couldn't afford not to solve. It may be time for drastic changes at NASA.
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