Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Live in Orbit: Discovery systems ready for re-entry

Tests this afternoon confirmed that space shuttle Discovery's systems are in good condition for a planned Thursday return to Earth.

The spaceship's seven astronauts tested flight control surfaces and pulsed 38 primary jets and four smaller ones to make sure they will allow Discovery to control its descent through the atmosphere.

Discovery hopes to land at Kennedy Space Center at 7:05 p.m. A second opportunity is available one orbit later, at 8:42 p.m.

The weather looks a little iffy, typical of a Florida summer late afternoon and early evening.

A forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group at Johnson Space Center in Houston shows a chance of thunderstorms within 30 nautical miles of KSC's three-mile landing strip, conditions that would delay the landing.

Anticipated 11-knot crosswinds are "a bit on the brisk side," NASA TV commentator Rob Navias said, though not a violation of landing rules.

Entry Flight Director Richard Jones will be given an updated forecast this afternoon, and will brief reporters at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

No back-up landing site will be called up Thursday, so Discovery will orbit for another day if weather is poor.

Then, Jones will decide if Edwards Air Force Base in California should be activated as a backup site on Friday or Saturday. The weather there is forecsted to be "pristine" through the weekend.

During the checkout of Flight Control Systems, mission specialist Christer Fuglesang reported seeing what appeared to be a ribbon-like object three to four inches in length float from the left, rear side of the shuttle payload bay.

Ground teams were reviewing video to determine what it might have been and make sure it poses no risk to Discovery's protective heat shields.

Coming up at 4:55 p.m., Discovery's crew will answer questions from three broadcast news outlets: CBS, ABC and CNN.

You can watch them live here - click on the NASA TV still image at right to launch a viewer.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just saw the ISS and Discovery pass overhead from here in Madison, WI... ISS looked like it was trailing something gaseous, almost like a comet tail. Anyone have any ideas? I'm guessing it's ISS as it was "first in line" in the pass.

Anonymous said...

Maybe a dump of some kind or a burn.