do is they want to get out of the business and we want to go beyond that. we want to explore further and further into the solar system and that s what the big organizations and organizations do best. they can push the engines of the envelope. that s what i see the astronauts doing. what happens to all those retiring shuttles? dozens are hoping to land them. john zarrella live at the kennedy space center. so who s in the running? reporter: you know, carol, we re here at kennedy because the nasadministrator charlie bolden is going to be there later today in essence to commemorate the very first flight. 1981. two got on onboard the columbia and left for to days on the space shuttle flight.
reearn trust of the people of the united states. the partners in pakistan has had a strong relationship adding a sign of a healthy relationship when both parties work through a thorny issue. thank you. bret: boxing legend muhammad ali is asking iran to release two american hikers. he s the most prominent american muslim and he wrote to itoia khomeini for asking for mercy ayatollah khomeini asking forer landed in central kazakhstan today after five months on the international space stion. scott kelly is the twin brother of mark kelly, the husband of congresswoman gabrielle giffords and commander of the final space shuttle flight, kelly is, set to launch next month. some folks are having a good time with your tax dollars.
reearn trust of the people of the united states. the partners in pakistan has had a strong relationship adding a sign of a healthy relationship when both parties work through a thorny issue. thank you. bret: boxing legend muhammad ali is asking iran to release two american hikers. he s the most prominent american muslim and he wrote to itoia khomeini for asking for mercy ayatollah khomeini asking for mercy. nasa astronaut scott kelly and two russians landed in central kazakhstan today after five months on the international space station. scott kelly is the twin brother of mark kelly, the husband of congresswoman gabrielle giffords and commander of the final space shuttle flight, kelly is, set to launch next month. some folks are having a good time with your tax dollars.
after flying 150 million miles, the shuttle discovery will make its final touchdown today. the crew paid tribute to the final mission by saying it will be a long time before there is another ship deserving of the name discovery. and i know you thought i was being a space geek but i told you saw it orbiting around the earth. you liked it. it was amazing. very cool. 25 years ago after the challenger disaster many thought there would be another space shuttle flight, period. nasa was ready to head back into space and discovery was the first to launch. from the news vault, abc news coverage from september 29, 1988. and lift-off. lift-off. americans return to space as discovery clears the tower. reporter: from abc, this is world news tonight with peter jennings. tonight reporting from the kennedy space center in florida. good evening. it was an extraordinary moment this morning and now that america is back in space, the space agency and perhaps even
reporter: this thing is 200 million miles away, so we don t have to worry about it. it s not on a collision course. that s good. reporter: or coming anywhere close to the earth so we re okay there. and apart from being just really cool, what good do these pictures actually do us here on earth? reporter: you know, here s what s interesting. from nasa s point of view it shows they can do space missions on the cheap. the reason i say this is this stardust spacecraft that took these pictures actually had a first mission where it orbited another comet called wild, gathered dust and debris out of the coma of that comet and brought that debris back to earth, dropped it off in another spacecraft and then was given this mission, all for about $350 million. that s cheap when you consider one space shuttle flight is $500 million. and from a science standpoint, they are going to get an idea of what happens to these comets as they come around the sun and how