Rain showers and low clouds along with a chance for thunderstorms and lightning made for an easy and early call as mission managers waved off two opportunities to bring the shuttle and its seven astronauts back to Earth."The weather at KSC is real moist, unstable. KSC is no-go and forecast no-go for thunderstorms within 30 (miles) and low (cloud) ceilings, and showers are consistently popping up offshore and over land," NASA astronaut Gregory "Box" Johnson told the astronauts from Mission Control. "We don't see any value in waiting two or three hours, so we're going to wave-off for the day."
"Okay Houston. We know you looked at it hard, and we appreciate you making the call early and understand," Atlantis mission commander Scott Altman replied.
Atlantis will have two shots at landing at KSC on Saturday: 9:16 a.m. and 10:54 a.m.
Two opportunities also would be available at Edwards Air Force Base in California: 10:46 a.m. and 12:24 p.m. EDT.
Entry Flight Director Norm Knight will decide later today whether to call up Edwards. t will depend on weather forecasts for both sites on both Saturday and Sunday. Atlantis can produce enough electricity to remain in orbit until Monday.
The Atlantis crew woke up about 2:01 a.m. and then got into deorbit preparations about three hours later. Mission managers called off a 10 a.m. landing opportunity just before 6 a.m. as the crew was preparing to close the shuttle's payload bay doors for a return to Earth.
ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA TV screen grab. It shows the view of the south end of the three-mile shuttle runway as seen from a camera on top of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building.
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