Spaceflight Now: STS-92 Mission Report

Astronauts set to bring Discovery home on Sunday
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: October 21, 2000, at 01:45 p.m.
Updated at 06:00 p.m.

  Bay
The payload bay of Discovery is nearly empty with just support structures after all the shuttle's cargo was successfully delivered to the international space station. Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
 
Keeping tabs on high winds in Florida, the Discovery astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems, packed up loose gear and squeezed in a final bit of "window time" today as they set their sights on landing Sunday at the Kennedy Space Center.

The seven astronauts enjoyed a home-cooked - and later, dehydrated - Spanish meal Friday evening to celebrate the successful conclusion of a complex space station assembly flight.

"I had precooked a Spanish specialty dish preflight and had it tested and dehydrated and we fired that up last night as our dinner, put on some Spanish music and the only thing lacking was a nice bottle of wine," said Madrid-native Michael Lopez-Alegria.

"But we did sort of have a coming to closure of sorts, if you will, last night and it was a special moment."

Commander Brian Duffy and pilot Pamela Melroy plan to fire Discovery's twin braking rockets at 1:06:57 p.m. Sunday to set up a landing at 2:14:20 p.m. on the Florida spaceport's 3-mile-long shuttle runway. A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later at 3:49:59 p.m.

Entry flight director Leroy Cain said today the only issue is the weather, with forecasters predicting crossinds gusting between 15 and 18 knots during both of Discovery's landing opportunities. NASA's safety limit is 15 knots.

But Cain said NASA will not activate Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Sunday. If Discovery fails to make it back to Florida, however, he will re-evaluate calling up Edwards for use Monday, depending on the forecast.

The outlook worsens Monday and Tuesday in Florida while it improves in California. Discovery has enough propellant and supplies on board to remain in orbit until Wednesday. At that point, the shuttle will have to land somewhere, one way or the other.

NASA wants to get Discovery back on the ground in Florida if at all possible. A landing in California would delay processing for the ship's next flight, a high-profile mission early next year to deliver supplies to the international space station and to brings lab's first full-time crew back to Earth.

Known as "Expedition One" or the "Increment One" crew, station commander William Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev are scheduled to blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on Oct. 31. They will dock with the station two days later to begin a planned four-month stay.

  Undock
The international space station after undocking on Friday . Photo: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
 
Discovery's crew installed a new shuttle docking port on the station along with a massive truss that will anchor a huge set of solar arrays scheduled for delivery in December. Shuttle skipper Brian Duffy said today Shepherd and company will like what they find.

"The international space station is an incredibly beautiful vehicle, both inside and out," he said during a news conference.

"The outside of the vehicle is just spectacular, it's sparkling. And the inside, it's light and it's bright and it's clean and it's airy and I think the expedition crews that are going to live there are going to be very happy with their accommodations."

Duffy and company spent their final full day in space testing the shuttle's steering systems and packing up for the trip home.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Duffy and pilot Pamela Melroy tested their cockpit display systems and fired up one of the orbiter's three hydraulic power units to make sure the ship's wing flaps, rudder, speed brake and body flap will work as needed during entry.

Later, they test fired Discovery's steering jets to ensure all 44 thrusters will be ready for use during the initial phases of the entry.

"We're looking forward to tomorrow, we're all ready to go," Duffy said. "The interesting thing as a pilot is to watch the vehicle morph from being a spacecraft into being an airplane. And it does so with a splendid flight control system.

"We start out just using the reaction control jets that are required on orbit and then very gradually, as we re-enter the atmosphere, the flight control surfaces become more effective. Finally, when we're down subsonic, we have all the reaction control systems turned off and we're flying more like an airplane.

"Of course, we're a 100-ton glider, not your average airplane," he said, "but an airplane nonetheless in the way that it flies."

For Melroy, the crew's only rookie, landing the shuttle ranks right up there with the launch in terms of her excitement level.

Shuttle pilots do not actually take the stick during their first landing - that's reserved for the commander - but Melroy will call out critical milestones, lower the landing gear and release the shuttle's braking parachute once Discovery is on the runway.

"I feel the exact same way any test pilot does the first time you get to land a new vehicle," she said. "Obviously, I won't be landing it, Brian will. I'll be supporting him and backing him up and it'll be a big learning experience for me and I'm really looking forward to that.

"But I think I'm mostly exciting about seeing a new vehicle," she said. "For me, every single time I've flown a new airplane, it's always been very exciting. I'm just really looking forward to seeing the actual response of the vehicle in real conditions. I'm very excited about tomorrow."

Ground track
See the path Discovery would follow during landing opportunities today in our STS-92 Landing Tracker.

KSC Orbit 169 - touchdown in Florida at 1814 GMT.

KSC Orbit 170 - touchdown in Florida at 1950 GMT.


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Flight Plan
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All times EDT (GMT -4 hours).