Early Friday afternoon, the STS-131 astronauts departed from the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, heading back to their home base at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in T-38 jets.
Earlier in the day, the crew members finished a week of prelaunch training that culminated at Launch Pad 39A as they climbed aboard space shuttle Discovery for a full-dress launch rehearsal, known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test. The exercise gave the crew, launch team and technicians an opportunity to walk through all the steps leading up to the launch.
Discovery’s launch on its mission to the International Space Station is targeted for April 5.