Atlantis comes down Wed., so missile can go up

Shuttle landing will clear the way for failed satellite shoot-down

To clear the path to shoot down a crippled spy satellite, NASA will open its California landing strip Wednesday morning so Atlantis can land that day, even if the weather is bad at Kennedy Space Center.

"The reason is to give the military the biggest possible window and maximum flexibility to ensure the success of the satellite intercept," lead shuttle flight director Sally Davis said Friday.

Next week, a Navy Aegis cruiser will launch a ballistic missile to obliterate a bus-sized spy satellite, which failed in orbit. The 5,000-pound satellite is spiraling toward re-entry and could drop 1,000 pounds of frozen, toxic hydrazine rocket fuel near a populated area.

"We're going to open up Dryden (Flight Research Center) at Edwards Air Force Base to ensure we land at the earliest opportunity," said Davis, who read a prepared statement and referred all questions to the Department of Defense.

The satellite and the missile will collide nearly 100 miles below the International Space Station. The missile will be launched during the week after the shuttle lands.

"So, we're not concerned at all about any risk to the space
station and at this point in time have no plans to do any operations
in conjunction with that activity," deputy space station program manager Kirk Shireman said.

On Wednesday, Atlantis wraps up a 13-day mission the space station to deliver the 500-cubic-meter the European Columbus laboratory. During the mission's third and final spacewalk Friday, U.S. astronauts Rex Walheim and Stan Love installed two European science modules on Columbus and moved a 1,200-pound failed gyroscope into the shuttle payload bay for return to Earth and refurbishment.

The European Technology Exposure Facility carries nine space exposure experiments, while SOLAR carries three instruments that will produce spectrographs of the sun.

French astronaut Leo Eyharts and German physicist Hans Schlegel are working to get Columbus' four laboratory racks producing scientific data within several weeks. Europeans are delighted to have real estate in space.

"We're really a real partner," Alan Thirkettle, space station program manager for the European Space Agency, said. "We feel it, and it's a very nice feeling."

The third and final spacewalk of STS-122 officially began when the pair
switched their spacesuits to battery power at 8:07 a.m. EST. It lasted
seven hours and 25 minutes, nearly an hour longer than scheduled.

Atlantis is scheduled to land at 9:06 a.m. Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center.