Bad weather forces shuttle to skip landing
CAPE CANAVERAL (AP) – Bad weather prevented space shuttle Discovery from returning home Thursday and kept its astronauts circling the world for at least an extra day.
Mission Control skipped the first landing attempt because of wind and rain. The wind eased but the rain lingered for the second attempt, and officials could not get comfortable enough with bringing Discovery and its crew of seven back from their space station delivery mission, now stretching 14 days.
Flight director Richard Jones waited as long as possible before deciding, with just minutes to spare, to give up for the day.
“Just doesn’t look like it’s coming together for us,” radioed Mission Control.
“We know that everybody worked it as hard as they could,” replied commander Rick Sturckow, “and we’ll look forward to trying again.”
Discovery’s next chance at returning will be Friday at 5:48 p.m. Forecasters already are dubious; conditions are expected to be even worse than Thursday. The weather improves only slightly Saturday.
Late Thursday, Jones decided to call up the backup landing site in Southern California – Edwards Air Force Base – for the next go-around. He made it clear that if the weather remains poor in Florida, then the shuttle will be diverted to Edwards. The cross-country ferry trip eats up $1.7 million, which is why NASA prefers sending shuttles straight to their home port.
Discovery has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday.
There was a bit of excitement earlier in the day when the shuttle astronauts had to steer clear of a mysterious piece of space junk. The debris apparently came from the shuttle or international space station, while the two were still linked. It’s believed to have become dislodged during the crew’s third and final spacewalk Saturday.
Specialists did not know how big the piece was – or even what it was – but determined it was going to pass uncomfortably close to Discovery beginning Thursday afternoon. The threat went away after the pilots slightly lowered the shuttle’s orbit.