Sts - 133 landing crew comments

  Geroge Diller/STS-133 NASA Commentator: And right now the word is that they'll all be going back in the astrovan which is also out at the runway right now. And here comes our crew, led by Commander Steve Lindsey. Meeting our Center Director Bob Cabana. And there's Steve Bowen, Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt and Nicole Stott. Now the crew is underneath space shuttle Discovery. Eric Boe is meeting our Administrator Charlie Bolden. Our Center Director on the right, Bob Cabana. Also who has been an astronaut who has flown on the shuttle. That was Bill Gerstenmaier, and now we see Alvin Drew again. Charlie Bolden/NASA Administrator: I want to thank everybody for coming out. I especially want to thank Steve and the crew for an absolutely incredible flight. If my numbers are correct, it's the 39th flight on Discovery. Discovery has a very special place for me, and for Bob Cabana over here, because we both had an opportunity to fly on it twice. So this is very bittersweet for all of us. I want to thank all of you for continuing to support the space program the way you have. I'm just going to turn it over to Steve and let Steve make a couple of comments here. Steve come on up Steve Lindsey/STS-133 Commander: Wow, it's great to be back. I am so thankful that we got to land back here at Kennedy Space Center, the home of Discovery. Charlie mentioned 39 flights. We believe, if we did our math right, which we may not have, this is 365 days on orbit for Discovery. An entire year in space. Discovery launched and came back on this flight just like my previous two flights on Discovery with absolutely no liens against her. No single system with any problems whatsoever. And if you think about a vehicle that's 26, 27 years old and been flying for that long to come back perfect, I have never seen an airplane be able do that. But because of the Kennedy Space Center work force here that takes care of this vehicle, it came back as perfect on its final flight as it did on its first flight. I'm extremely proud of this crew here. My crew did a fantastic job. The ground teams did a fantastic job. We accomplished every objective we set out to do then, plus a whole bunch more. But it was these folks on orbit that did it and I'm extremely proud of them and the job that they did. As Charlie mentioned it's a pretty bittersweet moment for all of us. As the minutes pass I'm actually getting sadder and sadder about this being the last flight and I know all the folks involved in the Shuttle Program feel the same way. To kind of end this, I would like to thank Bob Cabana and the Kennedy Space Center for giving us just a fantastic vehicle to fly. It was a privilege to be able to be in charge of her for just a couple of weeks. I'm sad to give her back, but I couldn't imagine giving her back into better hands than this group right here. Thank you all for coming and have a good day.