Space shuttle Discovery will spend another day in orbit after two landing opportunities at Kennedy Space Center in Florida were foiled by clouds and rain in the area. Forecasts call for Florida conditions to improve Tuesday and for generally good weather in California.
Commander Alan G. Poindexter, Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. and Mission Specialists Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki will have two more opportunities to land at Kennedy on Tuesday, as well as three at Edwards Air Force base in California.
The first Kennedy opportunity Tuesday would see a deorbit burn at 6:28 a.m. EDT with a landing at 7:34 a.m. For the second opportunity the deorbit burn at 8:02 a.m. would lead to a landing 9:08 a.m.
For Edwards, the first opportunity deorbit burn would be at 7:56 a.m. with landing at 9:01 a.m. The next would have a deorbit burn at 9:30 a.m. and a landing at 10:35 a.m. while the third would begin with a deorbit burn at 11:05 a.m. leading to a landing at 12:11 p.m.
Discovery has enough consumables to remain in orbit until Wednesday. There are a total of six landing opportunities at the three U.S. landing sites that day.
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