The Atlantis astronauts entered the home stretch of NASA's 121st shuttle mission today, packing up their spaceship and testing systems critical to a planned atmospheric reentry and landing Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center.
A day after departing the International Space Station, the crew checked out the orbiter's flight control system and tested the shuttle's 44 nose-and-tail steering thrusters.
Four of the thusters on the aft end of the orbiter lost power due to a circuit failure late Monday. But the failure is not expected to create problems for reentry and landing because other thrusters can be used to complete any maneuvers that might have required the failed jets to be fired.
The two large Orbital Maneuvering System engines that are ignited in a braking maneuver to drop the shuttle out of orbit are operating without problems.
The astronauts did swing the shuttle's tail in the direction of the sun to keep heat on the failed thrusters. Engineers do not want propellant lines leading to the jets to freeze up, causing damage that might necessitate repairs once the shuttle returns to Earth.
Coming up: A deorbit briefing with flight controllers just after the top of the hour and then a round of media interviews beginning at 8:35 a.m.
You can watch mission operations unfold here in The Flame Trench. Simply click the link below the images above to launch our NASA TV viewer and round-the-clock coverage of the STS-122 mission.
The image on the left shows the latest still from the Air Force 45th Space Wing weather channel. The forecast for a 9:07 a.m. landing opportunity at KSC on Wednesday remains pristine. Clear skies and light winds are expected.
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