Atlantis' crew arrives for launch Thursday. Left to right: Leland Melvin,
Barry Wilmore, commander Charles Hobaugh, Randolph Bresnik,
Michael Foreman and Robert Satcher. (Photo: NASA TV)
By William Harwood
CBS News/Kennedy Space Center
The following copy originally was posted on the Current Mission space page at http://cbsnews.com/network/news/space/current.html. Comments, suggestions and corrections welcome!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
10:44 AM, 11/15/09, Update: STS-129 mission preview
With the shuttle program entering its final year of operation, engineers are readying Atlantis for launch Monday on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver 15 tons of spare parts and equipment to the International Space Station as a hedge against failures when the shuttle is no longer available for service calls.
"In terms of being the flight that brings up all the spares for station, this is really full," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's director of space operations. "They've done a tremendous job of really outfitting station with all the spares that are going to be needed, essentially through its lifetime. This flight, and a couple of the other shuttle flights that come later, really set us up very well for kind of the end of the shuttle servicing era."
Awaiting a decision by the Obama administration on what sort of spacecraft will replace the shuttle and whether the moon or some other target will be NASA's next objective, the agency is pressing ahead with the Bush administration's directive to complete the space station and end shuttle flights by the end of 2010.
The International Space Station currently is only funded through 2015, but there appears to be widespread political support to extend operations through 2020. That would mean operating the lab complex for 10 years without the shuttle and its cavernous cargo bay to deliver large spares and other components.
With just six missions left on NASA's shuttle manifest between now and the end of fiscal 2010, Atlantis' mission is one of two devoted primarily to delivering critical spare parts and equipment - orbital replacement units, or ORUs - that are too large to be delivered by European, Russian or Japanese cargo ships.
"We're looking for the long-term outfitting of station, making sure the ISS is ready for the long haul and has the longest life capability possible," shuttle commander Charles Hobaugh said. "Our flight is one of the first flights that externally will provide a lot of those spare parts and long-lead type replacement items that are required to keep it healthy and running for quite some time."
Along with delivering spare parts and components, Atlantis also will bring astronaut Nicole Stott back to Earth after a three-month stay in space. It is the final planned use of a shuttle for crew rotation. From this point forward, U.S. astronauts will ride Russian Soyuz capsules to and from the station, at $50 million a seat.
But stockpiling spare parts is the core mission for Atlantis' crew and space station utilization flight No. 3, or ULF-3.
Mounted on pallets in Atlantis' payload bay are two spare control moment gyroscopes, used to control the station's orientation in space; a high pressure oxygen tank for the station's airlock; and a spare pump module, nitrogen tank and an ammonia reservoir for the lab's cooling system.
The pallets also carry a replacement robot arm latching end effector, or mechanical hand; a spare power cable spool used by the arm's mobile transporter; a solar array battery charge-discharge unit; and a device used to prevent potentially dangerous electrical arcs between the station and the electrically charged extreme upper atmosphere.
A box housing spare circuit breakers that can be installed by the station's robot arm and a Canadian robot known as DEXTRE is mounted on one of the pallets and a materials exposure experiment carried aloft in the shuttle's cargo bay will be mounted on ELC-2 during the crew's final spacewalk.
Atlantis also is carrying a spare S-band antenna assembly, along with supplies for the lab's six-member crew, gear for an amateur radio experiment and a system that can be used to track ships at sea.
The two cargo pallets will be mounted on the left and right sides of the station's main solar power truss and plugged into the lab's electrical grid to power heaters and provide telemetry. The new oxygen tank will be attached to the station's airlock during a spacewalk. The rest of the hardware will simply sit, waiting for the day it might be needed.
"It is establishing critical spares on board the International Space Station," said lead shuttle Flight Director Mike Sarafin. "We're going to warehouse parts that only the shuttle can deliver in large volume to the International Space Station for the pending retirement of the space shuttle, roughly a year from now.
"We're going to deliver two large external logistics carriers full of spares and position those outside the International Space Station so that when and if some of the hardware that's required to sustain the power production and thermal environment on board the space station eventually fails, we've got that hardware there and available and we don't need another vehicle to bring it to the space station."
After the shuttle is retired, supplies and equipment will be delivered to the International Space Station by unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft, the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, Japan's new HTV cargo carrier and commercial providers now in the process of designing future vehicles.
On Nov. 12, a new Russian docking module called Poisk automatically locked itself to an upward facing port on the Zvezda command module, providing a fourth docking port for the Russian segment of the station - a necessity for long-term support of up to six full-time crew members.
But none of the unmanned cargo ships is capable of delivering the very large components routinely carried in the space shuttle's cargo bay that are too big to pass through the station's hatches. Most of the spares being launched aboard Atlantis have no other way of getting to the station.
The shuttle also provides a way to bring failed components back to Earth for repairs or refurbishment. Atlantis, for example, will bring down components in the space station's urine recycling system that have encountered problems in recent weeks.
The station crew has enough fresh water and stowage to get along with no major problems until refurbished hardware can be launched on an upcoming shuttle flight. But the issue illustrates the sort of capability that will be lost when the shuttle is retired.
"This is why these (spare components) need to fly now on the shuttle," said station Flight Director Brian Smith. "There's no other way to get these ORUs ... to the ISS. And these are all critical spares. You can tell by what their function is we have to have these pre-positioned because they all serve vital roles on the space station."
The good news, he said, is that "we don't have an immediate need for any of them. We're leaving them on the decks."
"To say which one is more critical, you kind of need a crystal ball to see which system is more likely to fail," he said. "They all serve a critical purpose. Losing CMGs, control moment gyros, is a big deal, because if you lose your non-propulsive capability to maintain attitude, the only thing you've got left is the propulsive control and the prop(ellant) is a consumable. When you start looking at the retirement of the shuttle and what it costs to fly prop, that becomes a big deal. So prop conservation has been a big theme for the last year or so. Which means the CMGs are that much more important.
"You can also talk about the external thermal control system. We've got two of those, loop A and loop B outside. Each one has a pump module, the NTA (nitrogen tank assembly) and ATA (ammonia tank assembly). Losing one of those loops is very significant. We'd lose cooling capability to half of the electronics on the U.S., European and Japanese part of the space station. So that could become very critical very quickly.
"So it's just a matter of what the next failure is going to be," he said. "I would say at this point in time, they have equal criticality, which is why they're on this flight."
Atlantis is scheduled for liftoff from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:28 p.m. EST, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit. The shuttle launch window closes Nov. 20 because of temperature constraints related to the station's orbit. The next shuttle launch window opens Dec. 6.
Atlantis' processing has been routine, but engineers have spent a fair amount of time evaluating a potential issue with the acoustic shock of main engine ignition.
The issue first came to light after the October 1998 shuttle flight that launched former Sen. John Glenn back into orbit. During liftoff, the door covering the shuttle's braking parachute fell off, prompting an investigation that ultimately led to liftoff acoustics.
Additional instrumentation was added to subsequent flights and the data seemed to show sound levels were in the expected range. But in a subsequent analysis, engineers realized the way the sensors were being calibrated did not adequately take into account how the vibration of the pressure transducers themselves interacted with the sound they were supposed to measure.
More accurate calibration showed the acoustic environment at engine startup "was a lot more severe than we thought," said Mike Moses, the shuttle integration manager at Kennedy. "It was definitely above what our design limit was."
Engineers then began analyzing shuttle structures to make sure they could safely withstand the unexpected acoustic environment. One area of concern involved bolts that hold maneuvering jet extensions, called "stingers," on the back of the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system rocket pods.
Boroscope inspections of the bolt in question showed no cracks, at least to the limits of the instrument's resolution. Engineers also examined qualification hardware built in the early days of the shuttle program that was subjected to vibrations simulating 100 missions to look for any signs of undue stress. No major problems were found and engineers believe Atlantis can be safely launched as is. But additional instrumentation was ordered to collect more data during launch.
Joining Hobaugh on the shuttle's flight deck for the 129th shuttle mission will be pilot Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Leland Melvin and Randolph Bresnik. Strapped in on Atlantis' lower deck will be Michael Foreman and Robert Satcher, an orthopedic surgeon-turned-astronaut. Hobaugh, Foreman and Melvin, a former pro football draft pick, are shuttle veterans while their crewmates are making their first space flight.
Assuming an on-time launch, Bresnik will miss the birth of his second child, a girl, scheduled for delivery Nov. 20, two weeks ahead of her December due date.
"She's a pretty amazing woman," Bresnik said of his wife, Rebecca, in an interview with CBS News. "She's actually the lead for international law here at the Johnson Space Center. ... Her sister's coming down if I'm not here to help out. We're very fortunate for that, and the NASA family here.
"While I'm sad, I'm disappointed, to miss the birth, I'm hoping she'll forgive me later on when I tell her why I wasn't there when she was born. Miracles happen and miracle childbirth is certainly something we've been astounded by the past nine months and we're not going to complain about the timing of it. It's just unfortunate these two amazing life events happen all at the same time.
"I just look forward to getting the call that mother and baby are safe and healthy," Bresnik said. "If we're still docked to the ISS, depending on when the launch date is, we ought to be able to see a video conference with them and talk to them afterwards. That'll be great."
Assuming an on-time launch, the astronauts will be in orbit on Thanksgiving, preparing Atlantis for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center around 9:47 a.m. on Nov. 27.
Asked if the crew planned anything special for the holiday, Hobaugh said "the season is whatever the season is. It could be Christmas, it could be Thanksgiving, who knows? We're just always pleased to be in space and I don't care what they give us, it could be beef brisket, it could be tofu, it doesn't matter to me. We're going to enjoy ourselves no matter what we do."
The first two days of Atlantis' mission will follow the standard post-Columbia template, with the astronauts focused on setting up computers and other gear, testing their spacesuits and rendezvous aids and inspecting the ship's reinforced carbon carbon nose cap and wing leading edge panels for any signs of damage during ascent.
On flight day three, Hobaugh and Wilmore will oversee a carefully choreographed rendezvous with the space station, approaching from behind and maneuvering to a point about 600 feet directly below the outpost. Hobaugh then plans to initiate a mostly-automated 360-degree back flip maneuver, exposing the heat shield tiles on the orbiter's belly to the crew of the space station for a detailed photo survey.
"Positioned in the aft portion of the International Space Station looking out windows in the Russian segment, several station crew members will have cameras and shoot digital still images out the window of the tile surfaces on board Atlantis," Sarafin said. "All of those digital images will be sent to the ground before we complete our docking for review by the Debris Assessment Team and the imagery analysts on the ground."
Hobaugh then plans to guide Atlantis up to a point some 450 feet directly in front of the station, with the shuttle's tail pointed toward Earth and its open payload bay facing a docking port on the front end of the lab's Harmony module.
"From there, he'll maneuver in to the docking port," Sarafin said. "At a range of roughly 30 feet to the International Space Station, he'll perform a final alignment verification using the centerline camera. Once we verify we have a good alignment, we will go in and dock to the International Space Station.
"Once any residual motion has damped out, we'll retract the docking ring and complete a good hard mate to the International Space Station, verify there are no leaks at the pressure seals at that interface. Once those leak checks are performed, the crew will have a go to open the hatches and they'll greet each other and perform a safety briefing. And with that, the real core mission of STS-129 and ULF-3 will begin."
Waiting to welcome the shuttle crew aboard will be European Space Agency commander Frank De Winne of Belgium, cosmonauts Maxim Suraev and Roman Romanenko, NASA astronauts Jeffrey Williams and Stott and Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk.
Williams and Suraev arrived at the space station in late September. Stott plans to return to Earth aboard Atlantis while De Winne, Romanenko and Thirsk plan to fly home aboard a Soyuz spacecraft Dec. 1. Williams and Suraev will have the station to themselves as the core members of the Expedition 22 crew until three more crew members arrive Dec. 23.
One of the first items on the agenda after Atlantis docks is to make Stott a member of the shuttle crew, meaning she will start sleeping aboard Atlantis for the duration of her stay in space. This is a normal procedure to protect against any unusual event that might force the shuttle crew to depart early or in a hurry.
Two-and-a-half hours after docking, Bresnik and Melvin, operating the shuttle's robot arm, will carefully lift ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 - ELC-1 - from its perch in the shuttle's cargo bay just in front of ELC-2. The first cargo carrier will be maneuvered to a position on the left side of the shuttle where the station's robot arm, operated by Wilmore and Williams, will latch on and take over.
After the shuttle arm lets go, ELC-1 will be moved to the Earth-facing side of the port three (P3) truss segment on the left side of the station's power truss and locked into place.
The ELCs measure 16 feet by 14 feet and can carry 9,800 pounds of hardware with a volume of 98 cubic feet. The pallets are wired to provide station power and telemetry to attached payloads. For Atlantis' mission, ELC-1 and ELC-2 will carry cargo on both upper and lower surfaces.
Mounted on ELC-1's upper deck are a 600-pound control moment gyroscope, the battery charge-discharge unit, the plasma contactor arc prevention device and a latching end effector for the station's robot arm. Mounted on the lower surface are a 550-pound nitrogen tank assembly, a 780-pound external cooling system pump module and a 1,700-pound ammonia coolant tank.
While ELC-1 is being maneuvered into place, Foreman and Satcher will be reviewing procedures for the first spacewalk the next day before camping out in the Quest airlock module at a reduced pressure of 10 pounds per square inch. The campout protocol is designed to help prevent the bends after working in NASA's low-pressure spacesuits.
"This is an agressive mission in the sense that we've got a lot of key objectives that if we don't accomplish those on the days they're planned, it's going to have a ripple effect downstream," Smith said. "Specifically, flight day three is really the linch pin on this mission.
"We need to get docked, get ExPRESS Logistics Carrier 1 out of the payload bay and installed and get the crew into EVA campout to go out the hatch on a spacewalk the very next day. That is a lot of activity in one day, and if the docking takes longer than planned, if the robotic activities associated with ELC-1 take longer than planned or we just get behind, that's going to ripple down stream.
"Atlantis doesn't have the power transfer capability that the other two vehicles have, so we also have limited consumables from a power production standpoint on board. So we've got to get three spacewalks done, two ELCs out of the payload bay in 11 days. It's complex from that standpoint."
Assuming the docking and transfer of ELC-1 go smoothly, Foreman and Satcher plan to begin a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk on flight day four, Nov. 19, starting around 9:20 a.m. EST. Melvin and Wilmore will operate the station's robot arm during the spacewalk while Bresnik will serve as the spacewalk coordinator.
With Satcher anchored to the end of the station's robot arm, Foreman will unbolt the spare S-band antenna assembly in the shuttle's cargo bay and hand it to his crewmate, who will then carry it up to a storage point on the central Z1 truss that houses the station's four control moment gyroscopes.
"It's a really cool ride for Bobby, he's going to have a good time," Smith said.
Both spacewalkers then will bolt the antenna into place.
"Our first task is to take another spare part out of the space shuttle's payload bay, the SASA payload, which is S-band Antenna Support Assembly, which is basically a spare S-band antenna for the space station," Foreman said in a NASA interview. "It's an antenna that failed on orbit. They brought it back, refurbished it, now it's ready to go and we'll put it back into the spare location.
"So I will go out of the airlock, go over to the payload bay and start getting that thing ready to hand off to Bobby. Bobby's going to go out, get into the robotic arm and they'll maneuver him over into the payload bay on the end of the arm. He'll grab that thing after I unbolt it and he'll ride the arm back to Z1 where it gets installed in the spare location and I'll translate back over there and help him install it."
At that point, the two spacewalkers will split up.
"After we get (the SASA) installed, I will also pick up a set of cables from our tool box in the back of the payload bay, take those over to the Z1 location also and start stringing those things up for a future mission to use while Bobby continues to ride the arm and he goes into his lube-job-man role as the lubricator of a couple of the latching end effectors, the POA latching end effector and the JEM RMS latching end effector."
The former is a payload attach fitting on the robot arm's mobile transporter while the latter is the latching end of a Japanese robot arm attached to the Kibo laboratory module. Both latching systems utilize snares that rotate closed to lock onto a payload's grapple fixture. Because of past issues with the snares, regular lubrication is a now standard operation.
"He'll go and apply some grease to the snares inside those latching end effectors to make sure that they don't have a problem later in life," Foreman said. "So he's doing some preventive maintenance basically on those while I do that spare cable task. And then I go over to Node 1 and there's a slide wire over there, a safety slide wire, that is no longer usable, so I'm going to take that off, bring that back in and we'll also have a handrail to swap out over there. I take one handrail off, install a different handrail that actually has some ammonia line cable connectors on it that will be used on a future mission."
The day after the first spacewalk, flight day five, is reserved for a so-called focused inspection of the shuttle's heat shield if any problems are spotted during the inspections carried out the day after launch and during final approach to the space station. If no major problems are seen that require a second look, the crew will forego the focused inspection and devote the day instead to internal supply transfers and preparations for a spacewalk by Foreman and Bresnik.
Assuming an on-time launch, flight day five would fall on Nov. 20, the day Bresnik's daughter is scheduled for delivery.
Before the second spacewalk gets underway on flight day six, Hobaugh and Melvin will use Atlantis' robot arm to pull ELC-2 from the shuttle's cargo bay. Like ELC-1, hardware is mounted on both sides of ELC-2.
A second spare control moment gyroscope is mounted on the pallet's upper surface, along with the 1,240-pound high-pressure oxygen tank and a cargo transport container housing spare remote power control module circuit breakers.
Another nitrogen tank assembly is bolted to ELC-2's lower side, along with another coolant system pump module and a spooled power line designed to play out and retract as the robot arm's mobile transporter moves along the front side of the station's solar power truss.
After Hobaugh and Melvin pull ELC-2 from the cargo bay, Williams and De Winne will lock on with the station's robot arm to maneuver it into place on the right side of the power truss. About halfway through the ELC-2 installation procedure, Foreman and Bresnik will begin the mission's second spacewalk.
"On EVA 2 we go outside and we get a couple of antennas that are going to be put on the outside of the Columbus (laboratory) module," Bresnik said in a NASA interview. "One of them is a (maritime navigation system) antenna that will go on the front side of the Columbus. The other one's essentially a ham radio antenna that'll go on the bottom side out of the starboard end of Columbus. So we're both going to go ahead and put the antennas in and string the cable, get it powered up.
"Then we head over and we're going to go ahead and take an antenna that is up on the starboard side that has to be maneuvered over to the port side to make room for the AMS, or Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, that's going to come up on the final shuttle mission."
Once that work is done, Foreman and Bresnik will make their way to the lower side of the S3 starboard truss segment to deploy another cargo mounting mechanism like the ones used to anchor the ELCs. That will allow "other flights to come up and put their hardware on the cupboard, or the shelf of the space station for later use," Bresnik said.
"And then the last thing we're going to do is we're going to take an antenna that helps with the wireless video system when we're doing EVAs, we're going to take and install an antenna that was inside the airlock, we're going to take it out with us and install it back on the S3, back where we're doing the (payload attach system) system and put that out there so we've got better coverage when we have our crew members going out to do an EVA."
Following EVA-2, the astronauts will enjoy a bit of off-duty time on flight day seven before reviewing procedures for the third and final spacewalk the next day. As with the previous two excursions, the spacewalkers - Satcher and Bresnik - will spend the night in the Quest airlock module.
The final spacewalk has three primary objectives: moving the new oxygen tank from ELC-2 to the hull of the Quest module and connecting it to the airlock's pressurization system; mounting the Materials on International Space Station Experiment 7 - MISSE-7 - on ELC-2; and deploying another external payload mounting mechanism on the upward-facing side of the S3 truss segment.
"The major task we're going to do is installing the oxygen gas tank so we're bringing up some atmosphere for the space station," Satcher said in a NASA interview. "It comes up actually on ELC-2, which is going to be stored all the way out on the end of the space station, on the starboard end. So we've got to go out, way out there and get it, coordinate with the robotic arm, SSRMS, because we have to take it off of ELC-2, hold it in position for the arm to grapple it and transport it all the way back over to the airlock where we will go and install it onto the airlock.
"Now before we can install it there, there're some MMOD shields, which are micrometeorite debris shields, that protect the space station from these strikes that we (have) got to move out of the way, so we'll be detaching those, moving them out of the way and then we can install the gas tank.
"The other major activity is we'll be deploying these material science experiments called MISSEs," Satcher said. "Actually Randy will be getting those out of the cargo bay of the shuttle and bringing those over to ELC-2 where they're installed and deployed and I'll also be doing some rerouting of some cables on Node 1 in anticipation of future install of Node 3. So those are the major activities that we're going to do and it should take us a full six or seven hours to get that done."
The day after the third spacewalk - Nov. 24 - the astronauts will hold a traditional in-flight news conference and enjoy a half day off before a brief farewell ceremony and hatch closure to wrap up the docked phase of the mission.
The next day, Nov. 25, Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station. Wilmore, flying the shuttle from the aft flight deck, will pilot Atlantis through a 360-degree loop of the lab complex before departing the area.
The astronauts will celebrate Thanksgiving in space with a crew meal following a test of the shuttle's re-entry system. The day after Thanksgiving, the shuttle will return to Earth, weather permitting, landing back at the Kennedy Space Center around 9:47 a.m.
With Atlantis back on the ground, NASA will be poised to enter its final few months of shuttle activity, working to complete the International Space Station and transitioning from assembly to utilization.
"Quite a few things are going on and we tend to stay that way," said space station Program Manager Mike Suffredini. "You'll see us start to transition more and talk more about the research and giving more priority to research up mass along the way. That's why we built the ISS and we're at that position, we're ready to start focusing more on that even though we have a little more assembly left to do. We're all looking forward to that over the next several years."
12:15 PM, 11/15/09, Update: Countdown on track for Monday launch
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown continues to tick smoothly toward launch Monday on a mission to deliver critical spares to the International Space Station. There are no technical problems of any significance at launch pad 39A and forecasters are still predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather for the 2:28 p.m. EST liftoff.
"At this point, we're in very good shape, Atlantis is ready to launch," said NASA Test Director Steve Payne. "We're all looking forward to seeing Atlantis fly on Monday afternoon."
Engineers loaded liquid hydrogen and oxygen aboard the shuttle Saturday to power the ship's three electricity producing fuel cells and checked out the orbiter's three hydrogen-fueled main engines. Access platforms are being retracted today and engineers plan to rotate a large protective gantry away from the shuttle at 5:30 p.m.
Working by remote control, engineers are scheduled to begin pumping a half-million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel into Atlantis' external tank beginning at 5:03 a.m. Monday. Atlantis' crew - commander Charles Hobaugh, pilot Barry Wilmore, Leland Melvin and spacewalkers Robert Satcher, Michael Foreman and Randolph Bresnik - plans to strap in just after 11 a.m.
Atlantis has enough on-board hydrogen, to power the ship's fuel cells, to make three launch attempts. The forecast starts out at 90 percent "go" Monday, drops to 70 percent Tuesday and to just 40 percent on Wednesday.
NASA's strategy going in will be to make two attempts in a row, if necessary, and then to stand down for 48 hours to top off the fuel cell hydrogen for one and possibly two additional launch tries.
Because of temperature constraints related to the space station's orbit, Atlantis must get off by Wednesday to fly a full-duration mission and retain the possibility of extending the docked portion of the flight by one day to handle any problems that might come up.
A launch on Thursday, Nov. 19, is possible, but the ability to extend the docked phase would be lost. A launch on Friday would require the crew to cut one docked day to ensure the shuttle departs before the temperature issue becomes a factor.
"Our beta cutout, if we should get that far, begins on (Friday) the 20th," Payne said. "We have good opportunities through the 19th should we need them, although we should be out of here Monday if everything goes well."
1:45 PM, 11/14/09, Update: Countdown on track; management review finds no problems
The shuttle Atlantis' countdown is ticking smoothly toward liftoff Monday at 2:28 p.m. EST, with near ideal weather expected and no technical problems of any significance at the launch pad.
Mike Moses, director of shuttle integration at the Kennedy Space Center, said managers and engineers carried out a launch-minus-two-day review and unanimously cleared Atlantis for launch on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver 15 tons of spare parts and equipment to the International Space Station.
Atlantis also will bring astronaut Nicole Stott back to Earth after three months in space, along with hardware from the station's urine recycling system that has encountered problems in recent weeks.
Moses said the issue will have no impact on Atlantis' mission or near-term operations aboard the station. The crew has enough fresh water and stowage to get along with no major problems until refurbished hardware can be launched on an upcoming shuttle flight.
Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer, said she expects a 90 percent chance of favorable weather Monday with just a slight chance of low clouds. But high crosswinds and clouds are expected Tuesday, resulting in a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather, and the forecast drops to just 40 percent "go" on Wednesday due to expected coastal showers.
At launch pad 39A Saturday, engineers geared up to load liquid hydrogen and oxygen into the shuttle's fuel cell system, a procedure that should be completed by around 8:30 p.m. A protective service gantry will be rotated away from the shuttle at 5:30 p.m. Sunday, setting the stage for the start of fueling at 5:03 a.m. Monday.
Atlantis' crew - commander Charles Hobaugh, pilot Barry Wilmore, Leland Melvin and spacewalkers Robert Satcher, Michael Foreman and Randolph Bresnik - plan to begin strapping in around 11:08 a.m. Monday to await liftoff.
Here is a timeline of major countdown events through launch (in EST):
DATE/TIME.....EVENT Sat 11/14/09 01:00 PM......Resume countdown 02:30 PM......Fuel cell oxygen loading begins 05:00 PM......Fuel cell oxygen load complete 05:00 PM......Fuel cell hydrogen loading begins 07:30 PM......Fuel cell hydrogen loading complete 08:30 PM......Pad open; ingress white room 09:00 PM......Begin 4-hour built-in hold 09:00 PM......Crew module clean and vacuum 09:30 PM......OMBUU demate Sun 11/15/09 12:00 AM......Remove APU vent covers 12:30 AM......MPS 2000 psi GSE 01:00 AM......Countdown resumes 01:00 AM......Main engine preps 01:00 AM......Master event controllers 1 and 2 on; avionics system checkout 01:00 AM......Remove OMS engine covers, throat plugs 07:30 AM......Deflate RSS dock seals; tile inspection 08:00 AM......Tile inspection 08:00 AM......Tail service masts prepped for fueling 09:00 AM......Begin 13-hour 3-minute hold 09:00 AM......L-1 engineering briefing 09:15 AM......Crew weather briefing 10:30 AM......ASP crew module inspection 10:30 AM......OIS communications check 12:30 PM......Comm activation 01:00 PM......Crew module voice checks 02:00 PM......Flight crew equipment late stow 03:15 PM......JSC flight control team on station 05:30 PM......RSS to park position 06:30 PM......Final TPS, debris inspection 09:30 PM......Ascent switch list 10:03 PM......Resume countdown 10:23 PM......Pad clear of non-essential personnel 10:23 PM......APU bite test 11:13 PM......Fuel cell activation Mon 11/16/09 12:03 AM......Booster joint heater activation 12:33 AM......MEC pre-flight bite test 12:48 AM......Tanking weather update 01:33 AM......Final fueling preps; launch area clear 02:03 AM......Red crew assembled 02:48 AM......Fuel cell integrity checks complete 03:03 AM......Begin 2-hour built-in hold (T-minus 6 hours) 03:13 AM......Safe-and-arm PIC test 04:03 AM......External tank ready for loading 04:26 AM......Mission management team tanking meeting 05:00 AM......NASA TV coverage of fueling begins 05:03 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 6 hours) 05:03 AM......LO2, LH2 transfer line chilldown 05:13 AM......Main propulsion system chill down 05:13 AM......LH2 slow fill 05:43 AM......LO2 slow fill 05:48 AM......Hydrogen ECO sensors go wet 05:53 AM......LO2 fast fill 05:56 AM......Crew medical checks 06:03 AM......LH2 fast fill 07:58 AM......LH2 topping 08:03 AM......LH2 replenish 08:03 AM......LO2 replenish 08:03 AM......Begin 2-hour 30-minute built-in hold (T-minus 3 hours) 08:03 AM......Closeout crew to white room 08:03 AM......External tank in stable replenish mode 08:18 AM......Astronaut support personnel comm checks 08:48 AM......Pre-ingress switch reconfig 09:30 AM......NASA TV launch coverage begins 10:03 AM......Final crew weather briefing 10:08 AM......Crew suit up begins 10:33 AM......Resume countdown (T-minus 3 hours) 10:38 AM......Crew departs O&C building 11:08 AM......Crew ingress 11:58 AM......Astronaut comm checks 12:23 PM......Hatch closure 12:53 PM......White room closeout 01:13 PM......Begin 10-minute built-in hold (T-minus 20m) 01:23 PM......NASA test director countdown briefing 01:23 PM......Resume countdown (T-minus 20m) 01:24 PM......Backup flight computer to OPS 1 01:28 PM......KSC area clear to launch 01:34 PM......Begin final built-in hold (T-minus 9m) 02:04:08 PM...NTD launch status verification 02:19:08 PM...Resume countdown (T-minus 9m) 02:23:08 PM...Orbiter access arm retraction 02:23:08 PM...Launch window opens 02:23:08 PM...Hydraulic power system (APU) start 02:23:13 PM...Terminate LO2 replenish 02:24:08 PM...Purge sequence 4 hydraulic test 02:24:08 PM...IMUs to inertial 02:24:13 PM...Aerosurface profile 02:24:38 PM...Main engine steering test 02:25:13 PM...LO2 tank pressurization 02:25:33 PM...Fuel cells to internal reactants 02:25:38 PM...Clear caution-and-warning memory 02:26:08 PM...Crew closes visors 02:26:11 PM...LH2 tank pressurization 02:27:18 PM...SRB joint heater deactivation 02:27:37 PM...Shuttle GPCs take control of countdown 02:27:47 PM...SRB steering test 02:28:01 PM...Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds) 02:28:08 PM...SRB ignition (LAUNCH)
1:35 PM, 11/13/09, Update: Shuttle countdown begins; weather 90 percent 'go'
With forecasters predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather, engineers started the shuttle Atlantis' countdown Friday, setting the stage for launch Monday afternoon on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver 15 tons of spare parts and equipment to the International Space Station.
"We're not tracking any issues, all of our work is on schedule and progressing well," said NASA Test Director Charlene Blackwell-Thompson. "The STS-129 flight crew, Atlantis and the launch teams are ready to go."
Liftoff from pad 39A is targeted for 2:28 p.m. EST, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries launch complex 39A into the plane of the space station's orbit.
Atlantis' crew arrives for launch Thursday. Left to right: Leland Melvin,
Barry Wilmore, commander Charles Hobaugh, Randolph Bresnik,
Michael Foreman and Robert Satcher. (Photo: NASA TV)
Kathy Winters, the shuttle weather officer, said she expects a 90 percent chance of good weather Monday. Predicted high crosswinds drop the odds to 70 percent "go" on Tuesday and down to just 40 percent favorable on Wednesday because of expected coastal showers.
"The weather is looking very good for launch day," Winters said. "We'll have very good pre-launch preparation weather on Saturday and Sunday and then also for launch day, the weather is looking very favorable as well."
Atlantis' crew - commander Charles Hobaugh, pilot Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Leland Melvin and spacewalkers Robert Satcher, Michael Foreman and Randolph Bresnik - flew to the Kennedy Space Center from Houston Thursday to make final preparations for launch.
The launch window extends through Nov. 20. Atlantis will be loaded with enough on-board liquid oxygen and hydrogen for its fuel cell system to make three launch attempts. If the hydrogen tanks are topped off at some point, four attempts in five days should be possible.
Fueling for a Monday launch attempt is scheduled to begin at 5:03 a.m. The astronauts will head for the pad to strap in around 10:38 a.m.
A detailed countdown timeline, the crew's flight plan, ascent and trajectory data and the initial release of NASA's television schedule are posted on the STS-129 Quick-Look page, along with an updated version of SpaceCalc and the CBS News Space Reporter's Handbook.
12:50 PM, 10/30/09, Update: Shuttle Atlantis cleared for Nov. 16 launch
Editor's Note...
Prior commitments prevented me from posting this story immediately following the flight readiness review. My apologies for the delay.
NASA managers met at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday and tentatively cleared the shuttle Atlantis for launch Nov. 16 on a three-spacewalk mission to deliver nearly 15 tons of spare parts and supplies to the International Space Station.
"In terms of being the flight that brings up all the spares for station, this is really full," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's director of space operations. "They've done a tremendous job of really outfitting station with all the spares that are going to be needed, essentially through its lifetime. This flight, and a couple of the other shuttle flights that come later, really set us up very well for kind of the end of the shuttle servicing era."
NASA was able to reserve two days on the U.S. Air Force Eastern range - Nov. 16 and 17 - in a launch window that extends, in theory, through Nov. 19 and possibly Nov. 20. NASA got the launch slot after the Air Force agreed to delay, if necessary, launch of a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying a military communications satellite.
As it now stands, a ULA Atlas 5 rocket carrying an Intelsat communications station is scheduled for launch Nov. 14, with Nov. 15 as a backup. If the Atlas takes off on time, Atlantis will have a shot at launching on Nov. 16 with the Delta 4 following suit on Nov. 18. If the Atlas is delayed a day, the shuttle will slip to Nov. 17 and the Delta to Nov. 19.
If Atlantis doesn't get off by Nov. 17 - and if the Air Force agrees to another delay for the Delta 4 - the shuttle could have additional launch opportunities Nov. 18 and 19. But as it now stands, NASA only has two days to get Atlantis off the ground. After that, the shuttle launch would slip to Dec. 6 because of heating constraints related to the space station's orbit.
Mike Moses, shuttle integration manager at the Kennedy Space Center, said Atlantis is in good shape and should be ready for flight by Nov. 16 if engineers can close out a handful of open issues.
One on-going investigation involves the effects of vibrations and acoustics associated with startup of the shuttle's three hydrogen-fueled main engines. Another involves the strength of key brackets used to secure the shuttle's potty inside the crew module against worst-case crash loads.
The engine startup acoustics issue first came to light after the October 1998 shuttle flight that launched former Sen. John Glenn back into orbit. During liftoff, the door covering the shuttle's braking parachute fell off, prompting an investigation that ultimately led to liftoff acoustics.
Additional instrumentation was added to subsequent flights and the data seemed to show sound levels were in the expected range. But in a subsequent analysis, engineers realized the way the sensors were being calibrated did not adequately take into account how the vibration of the pressure transducers themselves interacted with the sound they were supposed to measure.
More accurate calibration showed the acoustic environment at engine startup "was a lot more severe than we thought," Moses said. "It was definitely above what our design limit was."
Engineers then began analyzing shuttle structures to make sure they could safely withstand the unexpected acoustic environment.
"At the end of the day, we had one tile, literally one tile, that did not have a factor of safety greater than 1.4," Moses said. "And we're going to go bond some gap fillers around there so the load gets shared across a couple of tiles and that'll take care of that one tile.
"The systems underneath the structure, like all the plumbing lines and the wiring and all that, we vibe test that but we don't vibrate it to failure like we would on a primary structural member. So the teams are looking at that to see where their limits are, how they're certified and to see what margins they have. And we've cleared all but a few subsystems. They just need a little more time to go through the math on the subsystems. But those should clear within the next week or two."
One area of concern concerns bolts that hold maneuvering jet extensions, called "stingers," on the back of the shuttle's orbital maneuvering system rocket pods.
"The stinger is the little part that sticks out of the back where all the RCS (reaction control system) thrusters are housed," Moses said. "It's held onto the OMS pod with four separate attach bolts. One of them carries a load in three separate axes at launch. That one shows some negative margins and we have some homework to do."
But the safety factor built into the shuttle design assumed a worst-case acoustic environment for every launch and engineers now know the environment is highly variable.
"The acoustic environment back there is a very dynamic thing and it's very hard to know that you're getting that same environment every single time," Moses said. "In fact, you don't get that environment every single time. How you take that and then apply that to a lifetime projection on your parts is where we're doing our math to make sure we're not being too conservative, we're not being too aggressive with our calculations."
Boroscope inspections of the bolt in question show no cracks, at least to the limits of the instrument's resolution. Engineers also are tearing down qualification hardware built in the early days of the shuttle program that was subjected to vibrations simulating 100 missions to look for any signs of undue stress.
"So that's the big work in front of us," Moses said.
Other topics covered during Thursday's executive-level flight readiness review included the threat of impacts from debris eroding off thermal blanket around the nozzles of the shuttle's solid-fuel boosters - engineers do not believe it poses a significant threat - and an on-going assessment of the foam insulation used on the shuttle's external tank.
An unusual amount of foam loss from the central intertank region of the shuttle's external tank earlier this year prompted additional testing, but Moses said Atlantis' tank appears to be in good shape. Likewise, non-destructive examination shows the foam used to cover so-called ice-frost ramps that hold external pressurization lines in place is solid, without the voids that can lead to foam shedding.
"So a real good story from the ET team," Moses said.
Atlantis will be flying with an additional camera in the cockpit that will be looking up during ascent, toward the ice-frost ramps on the liquid oxygen section of the tank, to give engineers a bird's eye view of how the foam behaves during the shuttle's climb out of the dense lower atmosphere.
"We'll be able to see four or five of the ice-frost ramps out of window No. 4 and that'll be very interesting data for us, it'll help us understand when the ice-frost ramps degrade and how they come apart," said Gerstenmaier. "Very likely, we should expect to see some foam shedding, some popcorn coming off of those regions. So if you see it in the video during ascent, I wouldn't be surprised by that."
As for the shuttle's toilet, Moses said the issue involves a bracket used to help anchor it to the crew module structure. The module is design to withstand crash loads of up to 20 times the force of gravity, or 20 Gs, but engineers discovered cracks from high-cycle fatigue in toilet brackets from two other shuttles.
Playing it safe, engineers replaced the bracket in Atlantis. But in the analysis, it was determined that the bracket was "under designed and cannot handle a crash load," Moses said. "We want anything in the crew compartment to be able to withstand a 20-G crash load."
For Atlantis' flight, engineers were able to show that a new bracket was unlikely to fail in a single flight even if a crack developed.
"I think we're going to do some ultimate, actual load testing and show we're probably somewhere above 10Gs, probably not quite at 20 Gs," Moses said. "So we're going to take a waiver to say we're not going to quite make our 20 Gs but for the normal design case and for a pretty severe crash landing, we'll be fine with this bracket."
For future flights, NASA plans to use a redesigned bracket.
"The simplest redesign is just to make it out of titanium instead of aluminum," Moses said. "When you look at it, it's actually a pretty thin, flimsy little part and it has to withhold something like 12,000 pounds of force in a 20-G crash load."
The Atlantis astronauts - commander Charles Hobaugh, pilot Barry Wilmore, Leland Melvin and spacewalkers Robert Satcher, Michael Foreman and Randolph Bresnik - plan to strap in aboard the shuttle Nov. 3 for a dress-rehearsal countdown that will set the stage for launch.
11:55 AM, 10/23/09, Update: NASA managers hopeful about Nov. 16 launch target
Editor's Note...
Portions of the following update were posted on the Breaking Space News page Oct. 19.
NASA managers met Monday, Oct. 19, and agreed the Ares I-X flight was the agency's top near-term priority. Because many engineers supporting the Ares test also are needed for shuttle processing, work to ready Atlantis for launch on the next space station assembly and resupply mission will be stretched out a bit. NASA had been targeting Nov. 12 for launch, but managers agreed Monday on Nov. 16 as a more realistic "no-earlier-than" launch date, officials said.
As of this writing, NASA does not have an official slot on the U.S. Air Force Eastern Range launch schedule. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket carrying an Intelsat communications satellite has the range booked for launch tries Nov. 14-15 and a Delta 4 carrying a military communications satellite is scheduled for launch Nov. 18.
Because of time needed to reconfigure range tracking and telemetry systems to support a different launch operation, the Delta would have to slip for NASA to have a shot at launching Atlantis on Nov. 16 at 2:28 p.m. EST. NASA managers are hopeful ongoing negotiations will, in fact, be successful.
Even if the Air Force agrees to delay the Delta launch, NASA will have a relatively short launch window. Because of temperature constraints related to the space station's orbit, Atlantis must take off by Nov. 19 at the latest or the flight will be delayed to Dec. 6. The December launch window closes after Dec. 11 because of a conflict with the planned launch and docking of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three station crew members.
Hoping for the best, Atlantis' six crew members flew to the Kennedy Space Center on Oct. 19 to review emergency procedures at pad 39A. A dress-rehearsal countdown, originally planned for Wednesday, has been delayed to Nov. 3 because of the decision to prioritize the Ares I-X launch and the resulting slip of the shuttle's no-earlier-than launch date from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16.
03:55 PM, 9/29/09, Update: NASA managers assess Atlantis launch options
Two upcoming satellite launches, a pair of meteor showers, multiple Russian missions and tight launch windows are causing potential headaches for NASA planners looking ahead to the next shuttle mission in November.
NASA is readying the shuttle Atlantis for roll out to pad 39A on Oct. 13 and launch around Nov. 12 on a mission to deliver critical spare parts to the International Space Station. But the ship's nine-day launch window currently is in conflict with a pair of unmanned satellite launches, one a commercial mission and the other military.
The U.S. Eastern Range, which provides tracking and telemetry support for all rockets launched from Florida, can only support one mission at a time and it operates on a first-come, first-served basis.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 carrying an Intelsat communications satellite is currently booked on the range for a launch Nov. 14 with a backup opportunity the next day. A ULA Delta 4 rocket carrying a military communications satellite has the range booked Nov. 17 and 18.
NASA had hoped to launch Atlantis on Nov. 9, but that would have required Russian space managers to move up the launch of a new docking module. The Russians were unable to comply and the docking module remains scheduled for launch Nov. 10.
While those discussions were going on, the Atlas-Intelsat team booked the range for Nov. 14.
Because it takes a day or so to reconfigure range equipment to support a different launch, NASA could end up with just one day or so at the end of its window if the unmanned launches stay on track.
NASA officials are hopeful the conflict can be resolved but as of this writing, the unmanned missions remain on the range and launch preparations are continuing.
Even if the first satellite launch moves and Atlantis takes off on Nov. 12, the Leonids meteor shower is expected to peak on Nov. 17, the day the crew plans to carry out the mission's second spacewalk. Some 300 "shooting stars" per hour are expected at the shower's peak. While the shower is not believed to pose a threat to the shuttle, NASA planners are assessing whether the spacewalk can safely proceed as planned if Atlantis is able to take off on time.
The shuttle's launch window closes Nov. 20, the start of a so-called beta-angle cutout. During such cutouts, the angle between the sun and the space station's orbit results in temperature issues for the docked shuttle-station "stack." The upcoming cutout ends on Dec. 5 and a fresh shuttle launch window opens on Dec. 6.
If Atlantis is unable to take off in November, NASA will have to contend with the Geminids meteor shower during the December launch window, a shower that poses a more significant risk to the shuttle. Even though icy debris from the Leonids travels twice as fast as the rocky fragments that make up the Geminids, the latter is spread out over several days while the former is concentrated over just a few hours.
"Leonids of the same mass have four times the striking power of the Geminids," said Bill Cooke, an astronomer with the Meteoroid Environments Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center. "But ... the Geminids have a higher flux enhancement than the Leonids because it's such a big shower."
Made up of icy debris from comet Tempel-Tuttle, the Leonids are expected to produce some 300 shooting stars per hour at their peak around 2:43 p.m. EST on Nov. 17 when Earth will plow through the debris stream. Cooke said initial predictions called for up to 500 per hour and the revised rate represents an "outburst" as opposed to a "storm."
In contrast, the Geminids are believed to be made up of rocky fragments from a body known as Phaethon, which appears to be an asteroid. This year's shower is expected to peak around midnight Dec. 13-14 at a normal rate of around 120 events per hour.
"The Leonids will be an outburst with a strength 10 to 20 times normal, but as far as the environment is concerned, the Geminids meteor shower still has more meteors per area per time than the Leonids do," Cooke said. "The Geminid stream is much wider. The Leonids stream is nice and compact."
Shuttles have flown before during the Leonids and Geminids showers, but NASA planners are re-assessing the risks associated with impacts. In the case of the Leonids, sources say the concern is more about whether a spacewalk might need to be delayed if the shuttle manages to launch on time. With the Geminids, analysts will be looking at whether the shuttle should even be in orbit.
A senior NASA manager said Tuesday a slip to December for Atlantis would not have any major downstream impacts on other upcoming shuttle flights. But the window is short and closes on Dec. 13, the start of a so-called Soyuz cutout.
The Russians plan to launch three station crew members in a Soyuz capsule on Dec. 21 and if the shuttle took off after Dec. 13, the ship would still be there when the Soyuz arrives, which would violate joint safety guidelines.
If Atlantis misses the November and December launch windows, the flight would slip into early 2010.
09:10 PM, 9/11/09, Update: Shuttle Discovery lands in California (UPDATED at 11:15 p.m. with crew comments)
The shuttle Discovery dropped out of orbit and swooped to a flawless California landing Friday to close out a successful space station resupply mission.
Shuttle commander Frederick "C.J." Sturckow and pilot Kevin Ford fired the shuttle's twin braking rockets at 7:47:37 p.m. EDT to drop the ship out of orbit for an hourlong descent to Edwards Air Force Base.
The shuttle Discovery banks to line up on runway 22 at
Edwards Air Force Base. (Photo: NASA TV)
After a steep descent across the Los Angeles basin, Sturckow took over manual control at an altitude of about 50,000 feet above the Mojave Desert landing site and guided the spaceplane through a sweeping 213-degree right overhead turn to line up on runway 22.
As Sturckow pulled the shuttle's nose up just before touchdown, Ford deployed the ship's three main landing gear and the spaceplane settled to a tire-smoking touchdown at 8:53:25 p.m.
"Houston, Discovery, wheels stopped," Sturckow radioed a few moments later as Discovery rolled to a holt.
"Copy, wheels stopped," replied astronaut Eric Boe in mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Welcome home, Discovery. Congratulations on an extremely successful mission, stepping up science to a new level on the International Space Station."
Discovery, seconds from touchdown. (Photo: NASA TV)
Mission duration was 13 days 20 hours 53 minutes and 45 seconds for a voyage spanning 5.7 million miles and 219 complete orbits since blastoff from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 28 at 11:59:37 p.m.
Sturckow, Ford and four of their five crewmates - flight engineer Jose Hernandez, Patrick Forrester, John "Danny" Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang - doffed their pressure suits for a traditional walk-around inspection about an hour-and-a-half after landing.
"Well, the crew of STS-128 and the space shuttle Discovery, we're very happy to be back on land here in California," Sturckow said on the runway. "We wish we could have gone to Florida today, gotten to see our families down there, but it just didn't work out with the weather."
Discovery's seventh crewmember, returning space station flight engineer Timothy Kopra, made the trip to Earth strapped into a recumbent seat on the shuttle's lower deck to ease his transition back to gravity after 58 days in space.
Asked if he planned to walk off the shuttle under his own power, Kopra told CBS News earlier this week "there are some scientific experiments that require me to come off horizontally, so I won't even have the opportunity to test it out."
Discovery rolls down runway 22. (Photo: NASA TV)
Like all space station crew members, Kopra exercised daily and "we have the chance to do the absolute best we can to stay in good shape. I think there may be some effects, but hopefully I'll recover quickly."
Reflecting on his stay in orbit during a news conference last week, Kopra said "this experience has completely exceeded anything that I thought it would be like, just the sights, the sounds, the experiences with a great crew and really being part of two shuttle missions. It's been absolutely phenomenal.
"The main thing, obviously, I'm looking forward to is seeing my family again, my wife and two kids. And maybe have a sip of a beer once I get home."
Kopra and his shuttle crewmates plan to fly back to Houston on Saturday for reunions with friends and family members and debriefings with mission managers and engineers.
Discovery delivered some nine tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station along with Kopra's replacement, astronaut Nicole Stott.
Over the course of a week of docked operations, the astronauts transferred two science racks, an experiment sample freezer, a new treadmill, an astronaut sleep station, a carbon dioxide removal assembly and other supplies and equipment to the space station.
"Wheels stopped." (Photo: NASA TV)
In addition, the shuttle crew carried out three spacewalks to replace a massive ammonia coolant tank, retrieve two external experiments, deploy a spare parts mounting mechanism and string power and data cables needed for a new module that will be attached next year.
Discovery undocked from the station Tuesday to prepare for landing. The astronauts intended to land Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center, but stormy weather blocked both available landing opportunities and entry Flight Director Richard Jones told them to stay in orbit an extra day.
More of the same developed today and after waving off the first Florida opportunity, Jones threw in the towel and diverted Sturckow and company to Edwards. It will take a week to 10 days to prepare the shuttle for a ferry flight back to Florida.
"Discovery was a really great vehicle on this mission, it performed flawlessly," Sturckow said after landing. "It was a great mission, we're looking forward to getting back to Houston for the debriefs. We just want to thank everybody for their support."
Next up for NASA is launch of the shuttle Atlantis around Nov. 9 on a mission to mount critical spare parts on the station as a hedge against future failures after the shuttle fleet is retired next year.
Aboard the space station, meanwhile, the Expedition 20 crew is moving into a particularly busy phase of flight. A new Japanese cargo ship, launched from Japan on Thursday, is scheduled to arrive next week. At the end of the month, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled for launch to carry two new crew members - Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev - to the station.
Williams and Suraev will be joined for launch by Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, a billionaire space tourist who is believed to have paid around $35 million for a ride to the station.
Laliberte will return to Earth Oct. 11 with outgoing space station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineer Michael Barratt.