>> and the vehicle is performing like a champ, like all of us who have worked so long on it knew that she would. i think we've got something that's really going to mean something to the company and the world. >> the astronauts have about 14 more hours in space before they touch down tomorrow in the mojave desert. >> we were in l.a. and heard the sonic boom. >> that was it, that was it! it's coming down. >> there it is. >> putting that all together in a technology to make it fly and then landing is remarkable. nothing like it had ever been done. >> touchdown. >> they're down. >> i said, it worked. the damn thing worked. >> the day will come, according to nasa, that a launch will be so routine that the press and television won't even bother to cover it. >> 30 weeks later, after columbia had been returned to the kennedy space center, astronauts flew columbia into space again.