Endeavour shooting for Sunday night KSC landing

NASA managers expect at least an even chance that weather will allow Endeavour and six astronauts to touch down at Kennedy Space Center late Sunday, but the orbiter could be diverted to a backup landing site in California's Mojave Desert.

"With the forecast we have right now, we have at least an even chance if not a little better than that, probably 60-40 on getting into KSC on the first opportunity tomorrow night," said LeRoy Cain, deputy shuttle program manager.

Both KSC and Edwards Air Force Base, the backup site, will be activated with teams ready to receive Endeavour late Sunday or early Monday.

Sunday's landing opportunities are planned for 10:16 p.m. and 11:51 p.m. at KSC, or 1:20 a.m. and 2:55 a.m. at Edwards (all times Eastern).

You can check out the planned ground tracks for each opportunity here.

This morning's forecast from the Spaceflight Meteorology Group in Houston indicates that showers and low clouds could violate landing rules Sunday at both KSC and Edwards.

But Cain said the outlook at Edwards was improving Sunday and looking worse for Monday, when the earlier forecast showed no landing rule violations. KSC's forecast may not improve Monday.

"There's a lot of ways this could turn out," said Cain.

Despite the uncertain conditions at the top two landing sites, there are no plans yet to activate the third option of White Sands Space Harbour in New Mexico.

Cain said that the crew's late inspection of Endeavour's heat shield so far shows no indication of problems that could endanger the spaceship's fiery re-entry through the atmosphere.

The crew reported a few very minor dings on two windows, and seeing a very small object float away from the payload bay. Cain said neither of those are issues.

Data from the inspections is still under review, and the crew may not get final clearance for landing until early Sunday.

"Endeavour has been performing just outstanding," said Cain.

The six shuttle astronauts, led by George Zamka, are stowing equipment and around 7 p.m. plans to start testing the flight control systems and thrusters needed to execute the re-entry and landing safely.

Endeavour launched Feb. 8 and docked at the International Space Station two days later. The orbiter undocked Friday night after a nearly 10-day stay.