NASA delays shuttle’s return to Earth

By Irene Klotz and Jim Loney

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – Cloudy skies over its
Florida landing site on Monday forced NASA to postpone the
space shuttle Discovery’s return to Earth, 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 3-mile, 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.

Collins agreed. “We’re going to enjoy another day on orbit
and we’ll see you on Earth tomorrow,” she said.

Barring emergencies, NASA will only land the shuttle if
there is at least 5 miles of visibility for the approach to the
runway and no rain, lightning or thunderstorms within 35 miles.

NASA has several chances to land the shuttle on Tuesday,
including at 5:07 a.m EDT (0907 GMT) or 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043
GMT) in Florida and at 8:12 a.m. EDT (1212 GMT) and 9:47 a.m.
EDT (1347 GTM) at the primary backup site in California.

“It’s not tomorrow or bust that’s for sure,” said NASA
spokeswoman Laura Rochon in Houston, adding that Discovery had
enough fuel and supplies to stay in orbit for a few more days.
“We fully expect to land tomorrow or Wednesday.”

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, NASA
decided to avoid flying over heavily populated areas.

BACKUP SITE

Shuttle program deputy manager Wayne Hale said NASA also
would staff its second backup landing site in New Mexico.

The landing will bring to a close NASA’s first shuttle
mission since Discovery’s sister ship, Columbia, was destroyed
on Feb. 1, 2003, 16 minutes from landing.

NASA did not know that the ship’s wing had been critically
damaged during launch by a piece of falling debris. As Columbia
plowed through the atmosphere 16 days later for landing,
superheated gases blasted into the hole, melting the ship. The
seven astronauts on board died.

After the accident, NASA developed on-orbit laser imaging
tools and inspection techniques, which were tested during
Discovery’s flight. They determined that an unplanned spacewalk
was needed to make a minor but unprecedented repair to the
ship’s heat shield.

But the biggest problem on the mission occurred at launch
when a chunk of foam almost as large as the one that damaged
Columbia flew off Discovery’s fuel tank. Columbia’s wing damage
was caused by a piece of foam insulation that fell off the tank
during launch.

In Discovery’s case, the foam did not strike the ship, but
NASA suspended shuttle flights until the problem was solved.

Discovery spent nine days at the International Space
Station on a servicing and resupply mission. In addition to
replenishing the station’s pantry, water supplies and other
gear, the shuttle delivered a new gyroscope to the outpost and
revived a second failed device, restoring full service to the
steering system for the first time in more than three years.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Zabarenko in Cape
Canaveral, Michael Christie in Miami, Jeff Franks in Houston)