This
story was updated at 2:52 p.m. EDT.
It's
landing day for space shuttle Discovery, but thunderstorms in Florida may keep
the spacecraft and its astronaut crew in orbit an extra day.
Discovery
and its crew of seven
astronauts are due to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida
Thursday evening at 7:05 p.m. EDT (2305 GMT) to wrap up a 13-day cargo run to
the International Space Station.
Thunderstorms
may creep too close to the shuttle's runway to allow a landing on one of two
opportunities today, and the Florida weather is expected to get worse Friday,
Mission Control said.
"The
weather in Florida this time of year is always iffy," Discovery's
commander Rick Sturckow said from space Wednesday. "If things aren't good,
the worst that can come out of it is we'll have another day in space, which is
a great deal."
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.
Landing
options
Discovery
blasted off late Aug. 28 and has enough supplies to remain in space until Sunday.
But entry flight director Richard Jones said he wants to bring the shuttle home
by Saturday at the latest. A second landing window opens today at 8:42 p.m. EDT
(0042 Sept. 11 GMT), but high winds and thunderstorms are also expected then.
If the
weather in Florida shows no sign of letting up Saturday, Jones may opt to land
the shuttle Friday at a backup runway at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
But a Florida landing is preferable since it will return Discovery to its home
port.
NASA's
landing rules require no thunderstorms within about 30 miles (48 km) of the
runway to avoid flying shuttles through rain, which can damage their fragile
heat shields. Discovery is carrying a special heat shield tile with an
intentional "speed bump" as part of an unrelated experiment studying
re-entry heating, mission managers said.
Buzz
Lightyear is hitching a ride back to Earth aboard Discovery alongside its
astronaut crew. The
Disney toy launched to the space station in May 2008 as part of an
educational project. A tickertape parade at Walt Disney World awaits his
landing.
"He's
very secure," said astronaut Tim Kopra, who is also returning home from
the station after a nearly two-month stay. "He's in his spacesuit and I'm
quite confident he'll have a safe ride home."
Buzz spent
just over 15 months at the station, dwarfing Kopra's time in space. Kopra had
hoped to spend another month in orbit, but his launch on a different shuttle
was delayed several times.
Homeward
bound
Discovery
delivered 18,548 pounds (8,413 kg) of food, science equipment and other vital
supplies to the space station. The shuttle crew performed three spacewalks and
delivered an air-scrubbing device, the equivalent of an astronaut bedroom and a
new 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 will be assembled by astronaut Nicole Stott, who arrived at the station
aboard Discovery and replaced Kopra as part of its six-person crew. But
COLBERT, which is in more than 100 pieces, will have to wait until after a new
Japanese cargo ship arrives at the station.
That cargo
ship, Japan's inaugural H-2 Transfer Vehicle, successfully launched today at 1:01
p.m. EDT (1701 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The
unmanned spacecraft is packed with about 3 1/2 tons of cargo for both inside
and outside the station and is due to arrive Sept. 17, when Stott plans to
pluck it from space with the outpost's robotic arm.
While the
station crew awaits the new cargo ship, Discovery's crew is looking forward to
life back on Earth.
"Space
has been great!" shuttle astronaut Jose Hernandez - a first-time
spaceflyer - wrote Wednesday via Twitter, where he's been posting updates from
orbit. "Words cannot describe this experience! The take home is our planet
is very beautiful! Let's take care of it."
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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