Recently, as a part of its cross-country flight to Florida, the space shuttle Discovery took a refueling stop in Texas.

Ferried on the top of a modified 747 aircraft, called a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Discovery landed from space Sept. 11 in California.

On Sunday, Amarillo's international airport witnessed the space shuttle's refueling stop, where the shuttle was welcomed by a horde of well-wishers and space enthusiasts.

A self-described "space nerd", Lisa Garvey, joined around 10 other enthusiasts in Bossier City, just north of Barksdale near Southern RV Supercenter on Industrial Drive.

She said that people look forward to safe returns of the astronauts, more so ever since they have witnessed space program's disasters like the 1986 Challenger and the
2003 Columbia explosions.

The 44-year old added, "Watching the space shuttle land was on my bucket list. Even though I didn't get to go to Florida to hear the twin sonic booms, I can still mark that one off. I was excited to the point of tears - literally."

Discovery left EDT at 2:17 p. m. and landed in Fort Worth at 3:15 EDT. After staying overnight at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La, the shuttle will reach Kennedy Space Center in Florida today.

Discovery completed a two-week, 5.7-million mile mission to the international space station, after which it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Discovery which is supposed to fly the last shuttle mission before it is retired after almost a year from now, will take on its last mission in March.

The Constellation program, which imbibes plans to construct an outpost on the moon, will bring new spacecraft.