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Weather poses challenge for Wednesday landing BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: September 19, 2006 An approaching front is expected to bring high winds and possible thunder showers to Florida's Space Coast early Wednesday, threatening NASA's plans to bring the shuttle Atlantis back to Earth after a successful space station construction mission.
The shuttle has enough on-board supplies to stay in space until Saturday, but the forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for good weather. "The weather outlook for tomorrow is not as promising as I would like," Stich told reporters today. "The front that came through the Houston area Sunday and yesterday will be in the Kennedy Space Center area on landing day. So our forecast is for crosswinds out of limits on our first rev, which is a night opportunity, and also some showers within 30 miles and the possibility of some low ceilings. So we'll have to deal with that. "The weather forecasters tell me they think the front will be through there right around the time between these two deorbit opportunities. So we'll watch the weather very carefully and if it's a good day to land we'll do so and if the weather doesn't meet our criteria, we'll have to go around again and try to land Thursday at the Kennedy Space Center. The forecast for Thursday and Friday calls for light winds and no threatening showers. Stich said that could change if the front stalls over Florida, but assuming it keeps moving as forecasters expect, NASA's strategy will be to make landing attempts in Florida only Wednesday and Thursday before activating the agency's backup landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for attempts Friday, on one coast or the other, if needed. The first landing opportunity Wednesday calls for a deorbit rocket firing, on orbit 170, at 4:52:08 a.m. and a pre-sunrise landing at 5:59:19 a.m. after an approach up the east coast of Florida. The forecast calls for a possible broken cloud deck at 5,000 feet, a chance of thundershowers within 30 nautical miles and crosswinds peaking at 15 knots. The crosswind limit for a pre-dawn landing is 12 knots. The second landing opportunity calls for a deorbit rocket firing one orbit later at 6:27:02 a.m. and a landing at 7:33:39 a.m. The forecast remains roughly the same, but the crosswind limit goes up to 15 knots for a daylight landing. "There are rain showers and thunderstorms out in front of the front and so basically whether Wednesday is a good opportunity or not is going to depend on the front passage," astronaut Tony Antonelli radioed the crew from mission control in Houston. "The models have the front passing between the two revs. We'll take a look at it when we come in tomorrow and see. We're going to try to be smart with the timeline. If it looks like we have a chance, we're going to press all the way through deorbit prep. If it looks early like we don't have a chance, then we'll try to knock it off early so we don't waste your efforts." "OK, Tony, we appreciate the information," Atlantis commander Brent Jett replied. "Obviously, we're ready to do whatever you guys need and we'll be ready to go tomorrow if the weather's good." Here's a timeline of re-entry activities for both Wednesday landing opportunities (in EDT; includes final approach and docking of the Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft at the international space station):
TIME/EDT ORBIT 170 OPPORTUNITY TO KSC _________________________________________________________________ 12:30:00 AM (NASA TV coverage of Soyuz docking begins) 12:37:00 AM Mission control weather briefing 12:52:00 AM Begin deorbit timeline 01:04:00 AM (Soyuz fly-around of space station begins) 01:07:00 AM Radiator stow 01:15:00 AM (Soyuz final approach begins) 01:17:00 AM Mission specialists seat installation 01:23:00 AM Computers set for deorbit prep 01:24:00 AM (Soyuz TMA-9 docks with space station) 01:27:00 AM Hydraulic system configuration 01:40:00 AM Post-docking news conference at Russian control center 01:52:00 AM Flash evaporator cooling system checkout 02:07:00 AM Mission control "go" for payload bay door closing 02:12:00 AM Payload bay doors closed 02:22:00 AM Mission control 'go' for OPS-3 entry software load 02:32:00 AM OPS-3 transition 02:57:00 AM Entry switch list verification 03:07:00 AM Deorbit rocket firing update 03:12:00 AM Crew entry review 03:27:00 AM Jett/Ferguson don entry suits 03:44:00 AM Navigation unit alignment 03:52:00 AM Jett/Ferguson strap in; other crew members don suits 04:09:00 AM Shuttle steering check 04:10:00 AM (NASA coverage of Soyuz hatch opening begins) 04:12:00 AM Hydraulic power unit prestart 04:19:00 AM Toilet deactivation 04:27:00 AM Vent doors closed for entry 04;30:00 AM (Russian TV coverage of Soyuz hatch opening) 04:32:00 AM Mission control 'go' for deorbit burn 04:38:00 AM Astronauts strap in 04:43:00 AM (End of Russian TV coverage of Soyuz activities) 04:47:00 AM Single hydraulic power unit start 04:48:00 AM TDRS-West comsat acquisition of signal 04:52:08 AM Deorbit ignition 04:54:52 AM Deorbit burn complete 05:27:42 AM Altitude 400,000 feet; shuttle in discernible atmosphere 05:32:12 AM (STS-107: EI+4:30 - 1st unusual data) 05:32:40 AM 1st roll command to left 05:43:38 AM (STS-107: EI+15:56 - Last valid data) 05:47:41 AM 1st left-to-right roll reversal 05:52:45 AM Velocity less than Mach 2.5 05:54:58 AM Velocity less than Mach 1 05:56:09 AM Shuttle banks around heading alignment cylinder 05:59:19 AM Landing on runway 15 TIME/EDT ORBIT 171 OPPORTUNITY TO KSC _________________________________________________________________ 06:07:00 AM MCC 'go' for deorbit burn 06:13:00 AM Astronaut seat ingress 06:22:00 AM Single hydraulic power unit start 06:27:02 AM Deorbit ignition 06:29:47 AM Deorbit burn complete 07:02:02 AM Altitude 400,000 feet 07:06:32 AM (STS-107: EI+4:30 - 1st unusual data) 07:06:56 AM 1st roll command to left 07:16:30 AM 1st left-to-right roll reversal 07:17:58 AM (STS-107: EI+15:56 - Last valid data) 07:27:07 AM Velocity less than Mach 2.5 07:29:18 AM Velocity less than Mach 1 07:29:53 AM Shuttle on the heading alignment cylinder 07:33:39 AM Landing on runway 33If the weather doesn't cooperate, the astronauts will have multiple landing opportunities Thursday and Friday at the Kennedy Space Center, Edwards Air Force Base and Northrup Strip near White Sands, N.M., if worst comes to worst. Here are all the possible landing opportunities through Saturday (all times in EDT):
DATE ORBIT D/O BURN LANDING SITE 09/20 170 04:52 AM 05:59 AM Kennedy Space Center 09/20 171 06:27 AM 07:34 AM KSC 09/21 186 05:14 AM 06:22 AM KSC 09/21 187 06:46 AM 07:54 AM Northrup Strip 09/21 187 06:50 AM 07:57 AM KSC 09/21 188 08:20 AM 09:27 AM Edwards Air Force Base 09/21 188 08:22 AM 09:29 AM NOR 09/21 189 09:56 AM 11:03 AM EDW 09/22 201 04:02 AM 05:10 AM KSC 09/22 202 05:37 AM 06:45 AM KSC 09/22 203 07:07 AM 08:15 AM EDW 09/22 203 07:09 AM 08:16 AM NOR 09/22 204 08:43 AM 09:50 AM EDW 09/22 204 08:45 AM 09:52 AM NOR 09/22 205 10:19 AM 11:26 AM EDW 09/23 217 04:24 AM 05:32 AM KSC 09/23 218 05:56 AM 07:03 AM NOR 09/23 218 06:00 AM 07:08 AM KSC 09/23 219 07:30 AM 08:37 AM EDW 09/23 219 07:32 AM 08:39 AM NOR 09/23 220 09:06 AM 10:13 AM EDW
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SUNDAY'S STATUS BRIEFING 