Irish Welcome for US Astronaut

Dan Tani (46) paid a courtesy visit to the Blackrock Castle Space Observatory in Cork yesterday — three months after he safely touched down from one of NASA’s longest and most demanding space missions with the shuttle Atlantis.

Tani’s two-month space mission unexpectedly doubled in length due to technical difficulties — and he was forced to remain on the International Space Station (ISS) for his mother’s funeral shortly before Christmas.

Mr Tani is married to Cork woman, Jane Egan (34). His mother was killed when her car was involved in a collision with a train at a level crossing in the US.

The NASA astronaut also marked his birthday during his 120 days in space on the ISS with several US scientists and Russian cosmonauts. The mission involved Tani orbiting Earth at a staggering total of 5.3 million miles.

Last February, some of Dan’s Cork-based family joined with schoolchildren at the Blackrock Castle Space Observatory to extend their best wishes to him via a special NASA satellite link-up with the ISS.

To mark his safe return to Earth, the Blackrock complex organised a live-link with the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Tani had blasted into space on board the STS 120 on October 23 last and completed a lengthy mission where he helped upgrade systems and carried out specialist technical repairs.

He returned to Earth in February having originally been scheduled to return before Christmas.

(c) 2008 Belfast Telegraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.