This
story was updated at 7:44 p.m. EDT.
Astronauts aboard
NASA's space shuttle Discovery have to wait at least one more day before
returning to Earth after thunderstorms and strong winds thwarted attempts to
land Thursday.
Discovery
had two chances to land at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida Thursday
evening, but the stormy weather spoiled both tries. The
space shuttle is now slated to land no earlier than Friday at 5:48
p.m. EDT (2148 GMT), though weather conditions are expected to be even worse,
NASA officials said.
"The
showers we were hoping would die out ... it just doesn't look like it's coming
together for us," Mission Control radioed Discovery's crew.
"We know
everybody worked it as hard as they could and we're looking forward to trying
it again tomorrow," shuttle commander Rick Sturckow replied.
Mission
Control said the weather situation in Florida was so dynamic that the decision
to call off the landing came "down to the wire," with just eight minutes
remaining before Discovery was due to fire its engines to leave orbit.
The seven
astronauts aboard Discovery are returning home to cap what is now 14-day
delivery mission to the International
Space Station. The shuttle has enough supplies to stay in orbit through
Sunday, but entry flight director Richard Jones said he plans to land the
shuttle by Saturday at the latest.
Landing
possibilities
On Friday,
Discovery's crew has four opportunities to land, with two chances each in Florida
and at a backup runway at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
"That
sounds like a great forward plan," Sturckow said.
But the
weather outlook for Friday in Florida remains grim. More rain,
thunderstorms and stiff winds are expected, Mission Control said. Forecasts for
the California runway are favorable.
NASA's
shuttle landing rules require no thunderstorms within about 30 miles (48 km) of
the runaway to avoid flying through rain, which can damage an orbiter's fragile
heat shield tiles. Discovery is carrying a special heat shield tile with an
intentional "speed bump" as part of an unrelated experiment to study re-entry
heating, mission managers said.
Before
today's landing delay, Jones said he was hopeful Discovery would be able to
return to its Florida home.
"I'd like
to stress we would like to go out as far as possible to go to KSC," Jones said
Wednesday while outlining his landing plans.
NASA
prefers to land space shuttles in Florida whenever possible because it is the
orbiter fleet's home port. Florida landings avoid the extra week of transport
time and $1.8 million in turnaround costs required to ferry shuttles back from
California to be primed for the next mission. Discovery is due to fly to the
space station again early next year to deliver more supplies.
"There're a
lot of good reasons that you want to make sure that you get into KSC," Jones
said.
Cargo
run complete
Discovery
astronauts launched
late Aug. 28 to deliver about 18,548 pounds (8,413 kg) of food, science
equipment and other vital supplies to the space station. They performed three
spacewalks to replace a massive coolant tank and replaced one member of the
station's six-person crew. The big-ticket items on Discovery's delivery list
were an air-scrubbing device, a pair of sophisticated science racks, a new
astronaut bedroom and a treadmill named after TV comedian Stephen Colbert.
Colbert won
an online poll to have a new space station room named after him earlier this
year, but NASA gave him the treadmill - known as the Combined Operational Load
Bearing External Resistance Treadmill - instead. The agency named the new room
Tranquility after the Apollo 11 moon base.
The
treadmill is in more than 100 pieces, but won't be assembled until after a new
Japanese cargo ship arrives at the station Sept. 17. Japan launched the
unmanned space freighter earlier today just hours ahead of Discovery's
attempted landings. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, who flew to the station aboard
Discovery to join the station crew, will use the station's robotic arm to pluck
the cargo ship from space once it arrives.
Stott
replaced fellow astronaut Tim Kopra as a member of the space station's crew.
Kopra is returning home after nearly two months in space, while Stott is
beginning what she plans to be a three-month space mission.
Buzz
Lightyear is also returning home aboard Discovery. The Disney
Space Ranger launched to the space station in May 2008 and spent 15 months
in orbit as part of an educational project. The 12-inch toy from the film "Toy
Story" will be returned to the Walt Disney World in Florida, where he is
expected to be welcomed with a tickertape parade.
Earlier
today, Discovery had to fire its engines to dodge what Mission Control called
"mystery orbital debris," a piece of space junk that was expected to fly too
close to the shuttle for comfort. The debris separated from either Discovery or
the space station on Saturday during a spacewalk, though NASA does not know
what the object is or its size.
Sturckow
fired Discovery's twin orbital maneuvering system engines to move the shuttle
clear of the debris and it did not hamper the shuttle's landing preparations.
Discovery's
STS-128 mission is NASA's fourth of up to five shuttle flights of 2009. NASA
plans to launch six more shuttle missions after Discovery returns before
retiring its three-orbiter fleet in the next year or so.
SPACE.com
is providing complete coverage of Discovery's STS-128 mission to the
International Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer
Clara Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for shuttle mission updates and a link to NASA TV.
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