Costa Rica Will be Part of NASA's Discovery Return to Space
Returning to space following the Columbia accident in 2003, NASA will be launching the shuttle Discovery and Costa Rica will be there all the way.

From it 's launch at Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Discovery shuttle flight will be followed closely by a WB-57 NASA airplane stationed in a hangar at the Juan Santamaría airport in San José. Once the Discovery is ready to head home and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere, the WB-57 plane will be there waiting.

The information gathering is part of NASA's WAVE project that is to  to collect information of flight speed and temperatures as the shuttle crosses the earth's atmosphere and to determine, with precision, the effects on the shuttle when it comes into contact with the atmosphere in the hopes of preventing any further disasters like that of Columbia and Challenger before it.