14 DAY TRIAL // The seven-astronaut crew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis have spent another day in space, after both their landing windows at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, have failed due to bad weather, heavy rain, clouds and strong winds. The streak has been going on for a few days, and Mission Control has no way of knowing whether the skies will clear by 9:16 am EDT (1316 GMT) today, when the orbiter has its next landing window. However, if touching down at the KSC proves impossible, there are other landing options for Atlantis, including airstrips in Southern California.
Atlantis was originally scheduled to land on Friday, and had two windows to do this, at 10.00 am and 11.39 am local time. But, due to the dismal weather, both attempts were canceled. Broken clouds were seen at 4,000 feet, and runs of the strip, done by veteran test pilots at the space center, showed that the shuttle would expose itself too much if attempting to land in that weather. As a result, Mission Control announced the crew in orbit that they would remain in space for another day. “We'll stand by. We're enjoying the view,” Space quotes Atlantis Commander Scott Altman as replying.
The craft has three chances of landing today. For all three windows, the Florida strip is available, but, for the last two passes, the Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California is also available. For the first pass, they will be unable to land in California. Therefore, if they pass over the western state and cannot land in Florida, they will have to wait for the next window. For the second pass, they have a window in the west at 10:45 am EDT (1445 GMT), and another one in Florida, a few minutes later. The third pass can be taken at 12:24 pm EDT (1624 GMT) in California, and a few minutes later at KSC.
NASA has always preferred landing its orbiters at the Florida spaceport, on account of the fact that it is the home base for the entire shuttle program. In addition, if the EAFB strip is used, then it will be more than a week before Atlantis is returned to Florida, atop a modified Boeing 747 jumbo jet. The agency would have to pay about $1.8 million in transportation costs, but will gladly do it if landing in Florida is dangerous for its crew members.
The victorious crew aboard Atlantis is returning from an 11-day mission to repair the beloved Hubble Space Telescope. During five spacewalks, performed over five consecutive days, the seven astronauts aboard the shuttle worked in shifts, replacing batteries, gyroscopes, insulating layers and guidance sensors, and also repairing a camera and a spectrograph, and adding two new “eyes” as well. Engineers say that it's now safe to assume that the telescope is in better shape than ever, and that it will be able to function until at least 2014. Its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, is scheduled to be launched after 2013.