The STS-121 mission has ended and the crew of space shuttle Discovery have returned home to Texas. STS-121 Commander Steven Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly, Mission Specialist Mike Fossum, and Mission Specialists Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers were given a hero's welcome by hundreds of colleagues, friends, family and members of the public. In turn, the crew thanked those who made the flight successful.

Discovery flight commander Steven Lindsey recalls NASA's two major objectives. One is to complete the 'Return to Flight' test objectives and the other is to get up to the space station, prepare it for assembly, fix whatever's broken, and deliver critical supplies to the crew. Both objectives were achieved and Lindsey acknowledged the support of the mission control teams in Houston:

"Every single minute we were awake and every single minute we were asleep, they flew the mission with us. They were up there with us every day. We were talking to them all the time. I can't count the number of times during the mission that these teams made critical decisions that made the difference between succeeding on a timeline or failing on a timeline. And they just did a superb job."