* Astronomy

Bhutan flag back from space

The national flag left for the space station, carried by an US-based NASA astronaut Danny Olivas on August 28 and returned 13 days later on September 11.
The initiative to fly the Bhutanese flag to space was taken by His Royal Highness Dasho Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck through Dr Diana Natalico, president of university of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), who was Dashos guest at the Coronation 2008, according to officials of the royal media office. Danny Olivas is also a professor at the UTEP.
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ESA astronaut returns to Earth with Columbus lab experiment
Space Shuttle Discovery landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 02:53 CEST (on 12 September) completing all objectives of the 14-day STS-128 mission to the International Space Station.
Discovery undocked from the orbital outpost at 21:26 CEST (19:26 UT) on Tuesday 8 September and safely brought back to Earth her crew of seven - including European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang of Sweden - and a precious cargo, ESA's European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF) which has spent one and a half years in space. 

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Nasa's space shuttle Discovery has landed at the Edwards air force base in California.
Plans to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida were postponed due to bad weather.
The shuttle missed two landing slots on Thursday, before landing at 1753 PDT on Friday (00:53GMT Saturday).

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Space Shuttle Discovery Returns to Earth After Successful Mission
Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles with an 5:53 p.m. PDT landing Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The mission, designated STS-128, delivered two refrigerator-sized science racks to the International Space Station. One rack will be used to conduct experiments on materials such as metals, glasses and ceramics. The results from these experiments could lead to the development of better materials on Earth. The other rack will be used for fluid physics research. Understanding how fluids react in microgravity could lead to improved designs for fuel tanks, water systems and other fluid-based systems.

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Final orbit: 219