Space shuttle Discovery’s crew is prepared to return home Tuesday

Monday, April 19, 2010

Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas

Space shuttle Discovery’s crew is prepared to return home Tuesday, as mission managers closely monitor weather that could affect their entry and landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew spent another day in orbit after two landing opportunities at KSC were foiled by clouds and rain in the area. Forecasts call for Florida conditions to improve Tuesday and the weather in California looks good.

At 10:21 p.m., mission control played “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson as the wakeup call for Commander Alan G. Poindexter, Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.

Discovery’s crew will have two more opportunities to land at Kennedy on Tuesday, as well as three at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The first Kennedy opportunity Tuesday would see a deorbit burn at 5:28 a.m. with a landing at 6:34 a.m. For the second opportunity the deorbit burn at 7:02 a.m. would lead to a landing 8:08 a.m.

For Edwards, the first opportunity deorbit burn would be at 6:56 a.m. with landing at 8:01 a.m. The next would have a deorbit burn at 8:30 a.m. and a landing at 9:35 a.m. while the third would begin with a deorbit burn at 10:05 a.m. leading to a landing at 11:11 a.m.

Discovery has enough consumables to remain in orbit until Wednesday. There are a total of six landing opportunities at the three U.S. landing sites that day.