Space shuttle Discovery returns to Earth

TEN LEFT

The mission leaves NASA with just 10 flights remaining in its space shuttle program, including a mission in October by the shuttle Atlantis to Hubble, the first major optical telescope to be placed in space.

Before Atlantis is cleared for that flight, however, NASA needs to repair a launch pad damaged during Discovery's liftoff, which blew out more than 5,400 bricks from an underground pit known as the flame trench.

Shuttle managers said a repair plan should be in place by the end of the month.

NASA plans to end its 27-year-old shuttle program in 2010.

A new spaceship that can travel to the moon as well as ferry crews to the space station is scheduled to debut five years later.

In between, the U.S. plan is to depend on Russia to fly astronauts to and from orbit unless a commercial carrier becomes available.

(Editing by Michael Christie)