Atlantis astronauts are making final preparations for landing this morning, one day before the vehicle is scheduled to come home.
The six-member veteran crew woke at 12:20 a.m. and are in the process of testing the jets and airplane-like surfaces needed to guide the orbiter through its atmosphere re-entry and glide home
So far they have successfully tested each reaction control jet, which consisted of pulsing each one twice.
Next up is to continue stowing equipment away and securing it for the ride back to Kennedy Space Center.
At a 10 a.m. news conference NASA officials will give the weather forecast for Wednesday morning’s launch.
So far officials have said they are keeping their eyes on scattered clouds that could affect the landing.
The first opportunity to land is at 8:48 a.m. The next chance is at 10:22 a.m.
If neither of those work, the astronauts will stay in orbit another day and attempt the landing at KSC on Thursday.
You can watch this morning’s news conference here live by clicking on the NASA TV box at right to launch a viewer.
With the completion of this mission, there are just two scheduled flights left before the shuttle program is retired.
After returning, Atlantis will be prepared as a rescue vehicle in case the fleet's final mission runs into trouble. There is some talk about using Atlantis to fly one additional shuttle mission, but it would require an extra $600 million to $800 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment