NASA delays shuttle landing until Tuesday

Alan Boyle Science editor • Profile • E-mail

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA extended the first space shuttle mission in two and a half years by one more day on Monday, postponing a planned landing because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida landing site.

Discovery had two chances to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but each time NASA decided against having the shuttle fire its engines for descent. The first landing opportunity was called off due to concerns about low cloud levels. An hour and a half later, mission managers passed up the day's second opportunity as well — saying that although the weather was technically "go" for landing, the conditions were still too unstable to take a chance.

"We’ve been working this pretty hard, as I’m sure you can imagine from our silence down here," capsule communicator Ken Ham told shuttle commander Eileen Collins from Mission Control in Houston. "We just can’t get comfortable with the stability of the situation for this particular opportunity so we are going to officially wave you off for 24 hours."

Later, Collins told Mission Control, "We're going to enjoy another day in orbit, and we'll see you on Earth tomorrow."

Flight director LeRoy Cain said the decision on the second landing opportunity "was a close thing — it wasn't quite good enough." He said Discovery would definitely "land somewhere on Tuesday."

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said he was comfortable with the one-day delay. "There’s no agony," he told The Associated Press. "We’re going to land one way or another, one place or another, and all we’re talking about is where."

NASA will open up its backup landing sites at Edwards Air Force Base in California and at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico for Tuesday's opportunities. The potential landing times (all Eastern) are 5:07 a.m. and 6:43 a.m. at Kennedy, 8:12 a.m. and 9:47 a.m. at Edwards, and 6:39 a.m. and 8:13 a.m. at White Sands.

Edwards Air Force Base, home to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, is less prone to finicky weather than the shuttle fleet’s Florida home. And even as Kennedy Space Center has taken over as both launch and landing site, the space agency has kept up Edwards as its No. 1 backup.

Of the 111 shuttles that have landed since 1981, 49 came in at Edwards, 61 touched down in Florida, and one landed at New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range.

NASA prefers to land at Kennedy to avoid the $1 million cost and potential for damage involved in flying the shuttle back to Florida atop a modified Boeing 747.

Cain said Tuesday's weather outlook for Kennedy Space Center was about the same as Monday's. He said the forecast was "very favorable" for Edwards, and somewhat less favorable for White Sands — which has been used only once for a shuttle landing, back in 1982.

If weather or other problems ruled out a Tuesday touchdown, the shuttle had enough supplies to wait until Wednesday.

One more shift
The landing delay marked just one more shift in the schedule for Discovery’s flight to the international space station and back. The shuttle’s launch was delayed for 13 days due to a fuel gauge glitch, and the mission was later extended a day to give more time for transferring supplies to the space station.

Re-entry is considered the most critical phase of Discovery's mission — particularly in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, which forced the 2 1/2-year gap in shuttle flights.

It was during re-entry that the shuttle Columbia disintegrated in February 2003 over Texas, killing all seven astronauts aboard and grounding the shuttle fleet. Investigators concluded that flying foam insulation from the shuttle's external fuel tank cracked a hole in the left wing, allowing superheated atmospheric gases to enter and destroy Columbia from within.

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