Flight Day 15 should be Homecoming Day for the seven astronauts of Discovery’s crew, now including Garrett Reisman. Weather at KSC is looking good. The payload bay doors are closed, and deorbit burn is scheduled for 10:10AM EDT. NASA reports:
Two Landing Opportunities Today
Image above: This image displays the long-range ground track for Discovery’s first landing opportunity tomorrow at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image credit: NASA› Share your comments about the mission
Two landing opportunities are available for space shuttle Discovery and the STS-124 crew to return to Earth today.
Discovery’s first landing opportunity is at 11:15 a.m. EDT on orbit 217. If controllers elect to take it, Commander Mark Kelly will perform the deorbit burn at 10:10 a.m. to begin the descent to Kennedy. Orbit 218 provides a second opportunity at 12:50 p.m.
Forecasters predict good weather at the landing site.
The STS-124 crew arrived at the station June 2, delivering the second component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory and a new Expedition 17 crew member – Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff – to the station. Chamitoff took the place of Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman, who is returning to Earth as a member of the Discovery crew.
STS-124 is the 123rd shuttle mission and 26th shuttle flight to visit the space station.
STS-124 Mission Information
› STS-124 Landing Ground Tracks
› STS-124 Mission TV Schedule
› STS-124 Execute Packages
› STS-124 Mission Summary (539 Kb PDF)
› STS-124 Press Kit (7 Mb PDF)
› Meet the Crew
Live chat at Bad Astronomy. Discussions at Nasaspaceflight. Official NASA landing blog here.
Flight Day 14 Highlights and Mission Status Briefing are up at Space Multimedia. Flight Day 12 images and Flight Day 14 videos are up at the JSC Gallery. Lotsa Youtube goodness at Space Get. Status Report #28 here. Check the links at right for play-by-play and NASA TV.