Cape Canaveral, August 8
Cloudy skies over its Florida landing site today forced NASA to postpone the return to Earth of space shuttle Discovery, prolonging by at least a day the first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Flight directors tried twice to bring Discovery back to Earth after 13 days in orbit but decided the weather was too unpredictable to be sure shuttle commander Eileen Collins would have a clear view of the 4.8-km, canal-lined runway at the Kennedy Space Center.
“We regret not getting you guys home today but we feel pretty confident about tomorrow,” astronaut Ken Ham radioed from Mission Control in Houston to the Discovery crew.
“Well, you guys made the right decision and we’re with you,” replied Collins. “We’re going to enjoy another day on orbit and we’ll see you on Earth tomorrow.”
Barring emergencies, NASA will only land the shuttle if there is at least 8 km of visibility for the approach to the runway and no rain, lightning or thunderstorms within 56 km.
NASA has several chances to land the shuttle on Tuesday, including opportunities at 5:07 am EDT (1437 hrs IST) or 6:43 am EDT (1613 hrs IST) in Florida and at 8:12 am EDT (1742 hrs IST) at the primary backup site in California.
Collins planned to tweak Discovery’s orbit slightly so that if the shuttle had to land in California, it would not fly over Los Angeles. Since the Columbia accident, which showered debris over Texas and Louisiana when the ship broke apart in the air, NASA tries to avoid flying over heavily populated areas in case of another accident.
