CAPE CANVERAL, Fla. – Good weather
has the space shuttle Discovery and its seven-astronaut crew poised to land at
Kennedy Space Center tomorrow afternoon, NASA mission managers said today.
"The forecast has been
great," said Bryan Lunney, STS-120 shuttle
flight director for entry. Lunney predicted that
conditions "should play out like meteorologists expect."
Mission managers also said that
Discovery's thermally protective shield, which the spaceship uses to absorb the
searing heat of reentry, was cleared for landing.
"I've got no worries about my thermal
protection system," Lunney said. "The vehicle's
in great shape."
Discovery undocked
from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday and is set to arrive here
at 1:01 p.m. EST (1801 GMT) on Wednesday, Nov. 7, but can make another attempt
to land at 2:36 p.m. EST (1936 GMT). If the shuttle touches down on its first
opportunity, it will have traveled 6,249,432 miles (10,057,486 kilometers).
Lunney said if gusts of wind exceed 29 mph
(46 kph), the spaceship will try for a Thursday or
Friday landing at KSC, California's Edwards Air Force Base or New Mexico's
White Sands Space Harbor. But Lunney said he does not
expect to have to do that.
"I'm real optimistic that
tomorrow's landing opportunities will play out for us for weather," Lunney said.
Mission wrapping up
Discovery's astronauts have spent just over 14
days in space to date and said today that they are looking forward to coming home after
preparing
their spaceship for descent.
During their mission, Discovery's
crew delivered a new room to the space station, brought a fresh member for the
Expedition 16 crew and relocated a giant chunk of the orbital laboratory's
backbone-like truss.
When a solar blanket snagged upon
deployment from that section, called the Port 6 solar array truss, spacewalkers
Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock
ventured out to make a risky
yet successful repair.
Shuttle commander Pamela Melroy will fly the 101-ton orbiter across the heartland of
America with the assistance of pilot George Zamka.
The descending northwest-to-southeast approach, as it is known, has not been
attempted since the loss of Columbia and its crew.
Lunney said the spaceship has enough food,
air and water to last the crew until Saturday, should any problems arise.
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