Another busy day in space
Update for Sunday, Aug. 19, 2001
at 7:15 a.m. EDT

It's expected to be another busy day for the joint shuttle and station crews now orbiting our planet once every 90 minutes.

Today's main goal will be for the shuttle Discovery crew to use the 50-foot-long robot arm and pluck an Italian cargo carrier from the side of ISS Alpha and place it back inside the spaceplane's payload bay.

The Leonardo module carried some three tons of supplies and equipment to the frontier outpost and then was filled with a large supply of used gear and garbage that will be returned to Earth.

Also on the agenda today: SPACE.com's Andrew Chaikin will interview Discovery spacewalkers Dan Barry and Pat Forrester. We are one of three media outlets that will talk with these crewmembers beginning at 6:05 p.m. EDT today -- five minutes earlier than originaly scheduled.

You can watch the interview, as well as Leonardo be moved from the station to the shuttle beginning about 3 p.m., by clicking on the NASA TV link above.

Ten astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station closed up an Italian moving van Sunday, aiming to stow it within visiting shuttle Discovery for a return trip to Earth.

Wielding the shuttle's 50-foot robot arm, Discovery mission specialist Patrick Forrester will pluck the cylindrical shipping container from an Earth-facing port on the station's Unity module at about 1:25 p.m. EDT -- two hours earlier than previously planned.

One of three identical moving vans built by the Italian Space Agency for the station project, the Leonardo module was sealed about 8:30 a.m. EDT. Stowed within it: almost two tons of supplies and equipment aboard it.

Forrester securely latched the end of the shuttle arm onto a metal grapple pin on the hull of Leonardo at noon EDT. The joined shuttle-station complex was flying over the Pacific Ocean west of South America at the time.

Also on the agenda today: SPACE.com's Andrew Chaikin will interview Forrester and fellow astronaut Dan Barry. Two other media outlets also will chat with the pair beginning at 6:05 p.m. EDT -- five minutes earlier than originally planned.

Click the NASA TV link above to watch the effort to stow Leonardo as well as the interviews.

It's undocking day for shuttle Discovery.

A farewell ceremony is set for 7:50 a.m. EDT. Hatches between the shuttle and space station Alpha then will be closed and the two spacecraft will separate at 10:52 a.m. EDT.

After undocking Discovery is scheduled to fly a loop around the outpost and then begin its two-day journey back to Earth, with a Florida homecoming scheduled for midday Wednesday.

You are invited to watch NASA TV coverage of this morning's activities by clicking on the link above. That will give you access to our feed of the space agency's broadcast.

We also will provide updates on this page throughout the day.

A final ceremony marking the imminent departure of shuttle Discovery was just complete inside the Destiny science module of space station Alpha.

Expedition Three commander Frank Culbertson presented two plaques that were flown aboard space station Mir and signed by all the astronauts and cosmonauts who had flown there as part of the joint Shuttle-Mir program.

Good byes and words of thanks were expressed all around during the short but emotional moment. Handshakes and hugs were shared and then the ten humans in space began moving to their respective spaceships for the next event, which is undocking.

Discovery is to separate from Alpha at 10:52 a.m. EDT.

You are invited to watch NASA TV coverage of this morning's activities by clicking on the link above. That will give you access to our feed of the space agency's broadcast.

We also will provide updates on this page throughout the day.

Discovery has separated from the International Space Station.

The undocking came right on time at 10:52 a.m. EDT.

During the next hour or so the shuttle will circle the station once before firing its jets again to begin the two-day journey home to Florida.

We will continue to update this page throughout the day.

With Discovery undocked from the International Space Station and a safe distance away from the frontier outpost, the shuttle crew has just deployed a 115-pound spacecraft called Simplesat.

Spring ejected from a canister riding inside Discovery's payload bay, the garbage can-sized satellite is equipped with a small 12-inch telescope and camera. The purpose of the Simplesat program is essentially to show how universities can afford to develop and deploy small space experiments within their limited budgets.

The satellite deploy came at 2:29 p.m. EDT, more than three hours after Discovery undocked from station Alpha at 10:52 a.m. EDT today.

Things are supposed to be relatively quiet for the rest of the day onboard the shuttle and the station.

For Discovery, the rest of the mission will be fairly routine. On Tuesday the standard day-before-landing drill will take place in the morning and then they will get a half-day off. Landing remains set for Wednesday and the early outlook appears favorable, but you never know in Florida until landing time is much closer.

Stay tuned to this page for updates as Discovery's landing nears.

Discovery's crew, which includes the Expedition Two team, have pretty much finished packing up the shuttle for their planned homecoming in Florida on Wednesday and will spend the rest of their day enjoying some time to relax.

Having awakened at 4:10 a.m. EDT this morning, they already are half-way through their final planned full day in space and have performed the usual day-before-landing checks of the shuttle's flight control systems and steering jets -- all of which went well.

The early word on the weather forecast for tomorrow is generally favorable, but anyone who has followed these shuttle landings know how quickly the story can change in Florida -- especially for an early afternoon during the summer.

We will post a full landing preview story on this page later today, and continue to update this section on Wednesday beginning at 9 a.m. EDT with the closing of Discovery's payload bay doors.

Discovery's payload bay doors are closed and locked for a landing attempt today at the Kennedy Space Center.

That word was just radioed down from the shuttle crew as they step through their procedures for returning to Earth. The next step, expected momentarily, is to switch their main computer software to use the entry and landing programs.

Everything is moving along right on the timeline to lead to a 12:46 p.m. EDT touchdown on runway 33 here at KSC.

And the best news is that skies here are clear and are expected to remain rain-free for the first landing attempt and possibly the second, if needed, as well.

Stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the morning.

All systems are go for today's landing of shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center.

In space the shuttle's cargo bay doors are closed, the landing software has been loaded into Discovery's computers and the seven-member crew is suiting up at this hour and taking their seats on the flight deck and middeck.

The weather still looks good. Observed conditions are go and the forecast is go. But clouds have started to form. So far they are scattered and dry and don't pose a threat. While there is great optimism being expressed by NASA in Mission Control and here at the landing site, Florida's finicky weather ultimately will have the last word, one way or the other.

If all goes according to plan, Discovery's braking rockets will be fired for three minutes and 11 seconds beginning at 11:37 p.m. EDT. That will commit the shuttle to an hour-long supersonic dive through Earth's atmosphere, ending with a touchdown at 12:46 p.m. EDT on runway 33 here at KSC.

Although the final approach can be changed after the deorbit burn, it's still a good bet the runway won't change, which means that any Space Coast residents or visitors who have time to get there can get a great view of Discovery's final approach to the runway from the parking lot of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

Stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the morning.

Mission Managers have called off Discovery's first landing attempt at the Kennedy Space Center today.

A rainshower has developed about two miles south of the runway centerline. The cloud keeps building, then its top blows off, and then the cloud builds up again and then it rains again. Chief astronaut Charlie Precourt, flying a weather chase aircraft, reports the skies are acceptable all over Florida except just off the runway.

Discovery is now aiming for a 1:17 p.m. EDT deorbit and a KSC landing at 2:23 p.m. EDT.

Stay tuned to this page for updates throughout the day.