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NASA managers assess weather, landing options
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: February 20, 2010


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With Endeavour safely away from the International Space Station, flight controllers are looking ahead to the crew's planned landing Sunday night, assessing threatening weather in Florida and California and evaluating a variety of landing options.

Endeavour's crew has two Florida landing opportunities Sunday evening, the first at 10:16 p.m. EST and the second, one orbit later, at 11:51 p.m. Two opportunities also are available at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert at 1:20 a.m. EST Monday and 2:55 a.m. EST.

The Spaceflight Meteorology Group at the Johnson Space Center in Houston is predicting a chance of showers within 30 nautical miles of the runway at the Kennedy Space Center, a violation of NASA's flight rules.

The forecast for Edwards calls for low ceilings and showers near the runway. A third landing site near White Sands, N.M., is forecast "go" Sunday. As of Friday evening, all three sites were predicted to be no-go overnight Monday.

Endeavour has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Tuesday at the latest. NASA typically reserves the final landing opportunity to handle shuttle-related problems. If that philosophy plays out here, Endeavour's crew would be expected to land, if possible, on one coast or the other Sunday or Monday.

Kwatsi Alibaruho, the lead shuttle flight director, said early Saturday that entry Flight Director Norm Knight plans to "manage our resources on orbit to keep the largest number of options open to us if the weather is not looking favorable for our Kennedy Space Center deorbit opportunities on Sunday."

"I think what will likely happen is we might consider calling up all three available sites on Monday and we'll plan our trajectory tomorrow or on Sunday to give us the largest number of deorbit opportunities on that end-of-mission plus-one day, which would be Monday," Alibaruho said. "That's the general thought process. Now of course, the specific decisions that will be made will start to take shape tomorrow as we understand more about the weather. Right now, the forecasts are a little bit sketchy in some areas."

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