Space shuttle leaves orbit, heading to California

By Irene Klotz and Deborah Zabarenko

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) – The crew of space shuttle
Discovery fired the spaceship’s braking rockets to leave orbit
on Tuesday and headed to California for the first shuttle
landing attempt since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

With good weather forecast for an 8:12 a.m. EDT (1212 GMT)
touchdown at the backup landing site in California’s Mojave
Desert, shuttle commander Eileen Collins fired Discovery’s twin
engines for 2 minutes and 42 seconds, slowing the ship so that
it could begin an hour-long free-fall back to Earth.

The shuttle was flying upside-down and backward over the
Indian Ocean when it left its 205 mile high orbit after a
14-day mission that included nine days at the International
Space Station.

“How do you feel about a beautiful, clear night with a
breeze down the runway in the high desert of California?”
astronaut Ken Ham radioed from Mission Control in Houston to
shuttle commander Eileen Collins, after NASA decided to divert
the planned landing from Florida to California landing.

“We are ready for whatever we need to do,” Collins replied.

NASA had scheduled Discovery’s homecoming for Monday but
cloudy skies at the shuttle’s home port in Florida forced
postponement until Tuesday.

Rainshowers near the prime landing site at Kennedy Space
Center on Tuesday prompted flight directors to divert Discovery
to Edwards Air Force Base in California. Light winds and clear
skies were forecast.

EXTRA EXPENSE

Landing in California means NASA will spend an extra $1
million and an extra week of processing time to ferry Discovery
across country to Florida on the back of a specially modified
747 jet. The space agency had wanted to have Discovery ready to
serve as an emergency rescue ship for shuttle Atlantis, which
was to be launched as early as Sept. 22.

NASA had Collins adjust the shuttle’s orbit so that
Discovery would not fly over the most heavily populated areas
of Los Angeles in case of another accident. During the last
shuttle landing, Columbia broke apart on re-entry, showering
Texas and Louisiana with debris.

Discovery’s touchdown will be NASA’s first since losing
shuttle Columbia 16 minutes before its planned landing on Feb.
1, 2003. The accident killed all seven astronauts.

Discovery blasted off on July 26 after NASA spent more than
$1 billion to fix problems uncovered after the Columbia
disaster.

Engineers were most concerned with preventing large pieces
of foam insulation from falling off the shuttle’s fuel tank and
striking the orbiter, the problem that doomed Columbia.

The fuel tank on Discovery failed its first test-flight,
shedding several large pieces of foam during the liftoff.
Discovery, however, was not believed to have been hit by the
large chunks of debris.

NASA immediately grounded the shuttle fleet until the
problems with the tank are fixed.

Other safety upgrades tested during Discovery’s flight were
more successful, including a laser imaging system mounted on a
50-foot (15-meter) extension boom to the shuttle’s robot arm.

Astronauts also tried out a new way to photograph
heat-resistant tiles on the shuttle’s belly from the
International Space Station. The Discovery crew also tested
techniques to fix wing panels and thermal tiles in orbit and
made the shuttle program’s first in-flight heat shield repair.

NASA extended the Discovery crew’s stay at the station from
eight to nine days to transfer extra supplies when it became
evident Atlantis’ mission to the station likely would be
delayed while engineers work on the fuel tank problem.

(Additional reporting by Jim Loney in Cape Canaveral)