NASA clears shuttle for toss up US landing today

Cape Canaveral (Fla), Dec 22: NASA yesterday cleared the US space shuttle Discovery for landing today, though poor weather and dwindling supplies could force the crew to divert to a rarely used site in New Mexico.

Touchdown remains targeted for 3:56 pm (local time) at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. Meteorologists, however, were predicting low clouds and a chance of rain, which would send landing flight director Norman Knight looking to the west to host Discovery's homecoming.

The backup runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert wasn't looking much better than Florida, with high winds tailing a cold front presenting a problem for landing today.

That leaves the US space agency with one last choice: Northrup Strip at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, where the forecast is favorable.

''If Northrup turnus out to be our only go site, that's where we'll go,'' Knight told Discovery commander Mark Polansky.

''That's what we've been expecting,'' he replied. ''We will be ready to go wherever. We've got our betting pools on board.'' Though the Northrup landing strip is long, wide and very level, NASA lacks key equipment to prepare the shuttle for transport back to Florida for processing. A landing at White Sands could delay Discovery's next flight by two months, deputy program manager John Shannon said.

NASA gave up its option to stay in space an extra day and wait for better landing weather in Florida or California when it decided to extend Discovery's stay at the International Space Station to fix a jammed solar wing panel.

The shuttle must be back on Earth by tomorrow before it runs out of fuels to generate electricity. NASA will delay today's planned touchdown only if there is an equipment-related problem.

The White Sands site has been used only once in the space shuttle program's 26-year history. Columbia landed there in March 1982 after its third voyage. It sat outside, unprotected for days, filling with the fine, white sand that gives the place its name.

WAITING FOR A LIFT?

NASA has upgraded the site somewhat, with a concrete platform to park the shuttle, but it still lacks a hangar, access platforms and most importantly a lift to get the shuttle on top of its jet carrier for transport back to Florida.

If Discovery lands in New Mexico, the lift will have to be dismantled at the California site, flown to New Mexico, and put back together again, a process that could take 45 to 60 days, Shannon said.

The shuttle is scheduled to be taken out of service after landing for routine inspection and maintenance. But its next mission is key to NASA's race to finish building the space station before the shuttles are retired in 2010. In October 2007, Discovery is scheduled to carry Europe's long-delayed Columbus laboratory to the orbital outpost.

The agency needs at least 13 more missions to finish the half-built station. It also wants to fly a final repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope and one or two station-resupply missions.

Since leaving the station on Tuesday, Discovery's astronauts have completed a final inspection of their ship's heat shield and deployed several small science satellites. Engineers found no problems with the heat shield, but one of the satellites failed to pop out of its canister as planned. The experiment is designed to test the aerodynamic effects of Earth's upper atmosphere.

REUTERS

Related Stories