CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.--Discovery's astronauts delivered a poignant salute yesterday to their fallen Challenger comrades, eulogizing them as fellow sojourners and friends, and saying, "At this moment, our place in the heavens makes us feel closer to them than ever before."

Said astronaut John M. Lounge: "It's good to be back to where they wanted to go so badly."

As they beamed down spectacular views of the mottled blue and white Earth miles below, the Discovery astronauts spoke about the Challenger--America's last manned space venture--which exploded on lift-off 32 months ago tragically killing school teacher Christa McAuliffe and six others.

"Those on the Challenger who had flown before and seen these sights, they would know the meaning of our thoughts," said astronaut George D. Nelson. "Those who had gone to view them for the first time, they would know why we set forth."

Discovery is to return home from its four-day, one-hour, 65-orbit flight today, landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 12:37 p.m. EDT.

The astronauts may be a bit warm on their 10,000-mile glide home; a cooling system problem has plagued most of the flight may still not be working.

Gathered in the Discovery's middeck in front of a photograph of the Challenger crew, the crew took turns reading portions of the statement they had written.

"Today, up here where the blue sky turns to black," said commander Frederick H. Hauck, "we can say at long last to Dick, Mike, Judy, to Ron and El, and to Christa and Greg:

"Dear friends, we have resumed the journey that we promised to continue for you. Dear friends, your loss has meant that we could confidently begin anew. Dear friends, your spirit and your dreams are still alive in our heart."

The seven who died aboard Challenger were Richard Scobee, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis.

In a 20-minute news conference with reporters gathered in a Mission Control auditorium, Hauck praised Discovery's performance, saying, "I'm not sure that we've had a mission that has been this trouble-free with an orbiter before."

Lounge was asked what he would say to the two presidential candidates to convince them to support the space program. He answered it this way:

"This is a very important flight simply because it's the first step. I would hope that all of the enthusiasm that we've seen throughout the country for this flight is sustained for the dozens and dozens of flights we have ahead of us if we're going to make this program grow to the point that it needs to grow to to get us on the path to the future."