Friends, family celebrate Melvin's mission, landing

Cathy Melvin Clarke slept just fine Tuesday, the night before her brother, Lynchburg native Leland Melvin, returned from space.
"We were ready," Clarke said Wednesday from her brother's home in Houston.
She and her parents, Grace and Deems Melvin, watched from NASA's Mission Control headquarters in Houston as Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
 "I don't think we ever, in all honesty, thought that maybe they might not make it back," she said. "We just never had that thought. We were just confident.
"We have incredible confidence in NASA."
They also had confidence in a higher power.
"We were just like, 'God is so faithful,'" she said. "Because everything … was perfect, from the launch to the landing."
Melvin, a Heritage High School and University of Richmond grad, landed right on schedule with his six crewmates at 9:07 a.m. after flying 5.3 million miles during their mission to install the Columbus laboratory at the international space station.
"Mission Control has these big screens. Because we were sitting right behind it … we could see what they were tracking as it was coming in," Clarke said. "At a certain point, we were able to see it come through the clouds, and just … wow. We have had a peace in our hearts because we knew this is what was supposed to happen."
At the time of landing, "everybody just had a big grin on their face," she said. "Everybody said Leland did an excellent job."
The mission began Feb. 7 and lasted 12 days, 18 hours, 21 minutes and 55 seconds. It included three spacewalks to install and set up Columbus, which expands the types of experiments space station astronauts can perform.
Columbus is the European Space Agency's biggest contribution to the international space station.
"This was just an unbelievably super mission for us," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said in a news conference after the landing. "I can't think of a better way to start this year out than with this great flight."
Melvin played a key role, operating the space station's 58-foot robotic arm to install Columbus and to carry fellow astronauts Rex Walheim, Hans Schlegel and Stanley Love on those three
spacewalks.
He also celebrated his 44th birthday in space on Feb. 15, with a surprise from back home. Clarke, her parents and a group of family and friends gathered at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, where they held a birthday celebration for Melvin. He was able to watch through an audio/video hook-up.
"Seeing him at the party, it was like, 'OK, come home baby brother,'" Clarke said.
The mission's final spacewalk was completed Friday, and Atlantis undocked from the space station early Monday.
Tuesday was spent testing the vehicle's steering jets and preparing a seat for astronaut Daniel Tani, who returned to Earth with the crew after spending four months onboard the space station. European Space Agency astronaut Leopold Eyharts stayed in his place.
The crew began its descent into Florida early Wednesday, with a flight path that took them over parts of Central America and the Caribbean before they crossed the west coast of Florida and continued on to Kennedy.
At 8:57 a.m., Atlantis was over Florida and had about 200 miles until it reached Kennedy. The first glimpses of the shuttle in the Florida skies came at 9:05 a.m., and it landed, on schedule, at 9:07 a.m.
Clad in blue NASA jumpsuits, the astronauts finally exited Atlantis at 9:50 a.m. and got onboard the crew transport vehicle, where they went through a brief medical exam, according to NASA. Then they took a walk around Atlantis to examine the orbiter as technicians retrieved several time-sensitive experiments, so they could be studied right away.
"We're very excited that our mission is completed and was successful," Commander Steve Frick said after the walk around the shuttle.
"A space shuttle mission - both the mission and the training - is tough on the families," he continued, adding that the past two weeks have been hard on their loved ones. "They're not comfortable or happy until we're home."
Melvin will see Clarke and his parents this afternoon, when he flies back to Houston with the rest of the crew.
STS-122, Atlantis' mission, is the 121st shuttle mission and the 24th to visit the space station. The next mission, STS-123, is slated to launch in March.
"It feels really good to have missions back-to-back again," said Launch Director Mike Leinbach. "The team is really pumped to get going and get ready for their next flight."