Live In Orbit: Crew Suits Up For 10:09 AM Landing

The Atlantis astronauts are suiting up for a landing opportunity at 10:09 a.m. at Kennedy Space Center, but NASA mission managers are tracking storms brewing south of the spaceport.



Flying 184 miles above Earth, the seven Atlantis astronauts closed the shuttle's payload bay doors on time around 6:17 a.m. and then stepped through their deorbit preparations. The crew now is donning partial-pressure launch-and-entry suits in advance of what would be a deorbit burn at 8:57 a.m.

NASA Chief Astronaut Steve Lindsey is flying weather reconnaissance in a Shuttle Training Aircraft, a Gulfstream II plane modified to mimic the shuttle's brick-like dive on final approach.

Lindsey has been examining thunderstorms brewing southeast of KSC, and he also is making approaches to either end of the shuttle runway to determine which would be the better choice today.

Runway 33 is being targeted at this time.