14 DAY TRIAL // After 16 days of intense work in space, the crew of mission STS-123 is expected to return to Earth today and land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. During its 12 days stay at the ISS the space shuttle Endeavor broke yet another record in the build of the space station, with the longest mission ever conducted. The shuttle commanded by Dominic Gorie is scheduled to land at 7:05 p.m. EDT, thus completing the mission in which Endeavor flew to the ISS the first section of JAXA's space laboratory Kibo and assembled the Canadian robot Dextre.
Along with Gorie will ride Endeavor pilot Gregory H. Johnson, mission specialists Rober Behnken, Mike Foreman and Rick Linneham, Takao Doi and ex. space station resident Lopold Eyharts, who was replaced by astronaut Garrett Reisman. Eyharts was flown to the ISS with the Atlantis space shuttle during the mission STS-122 that delivered the European space laboratory Columbus and spent 50 days on board the ISS.
Endeavor re-entry flight director Richard Jones says that the space shuttle will have two windows in which it can try a re-entry, one at 7:05 p.m. and the second at 8:39 p.m. EDT, meaning it could land one hour after the sunset over Florida. NASA's Spaceflight Meteorology Group forecasts favorable flight conditions, possibly some scattered clouds.
Theoretically, the space shuttle can land both in day and night conditions, however most mission commanders play it safe and prefer to touch down before the sunset.
Endeavor yesterday fired its thrusters to increase the speed of the orbiter so that it will get at least one chance for a daylight landing attempt. Also, during yesterday's readiness evaluation, the crew of Endeavor discovered what appeared to be a small dent the approximate size of a coin in one of the windows hubs of the space shuttle, albeit the minor hit does not present any threat during the re-entry.
According to Jones, the supplies currently on board the Endeavor should be enough to remain in orbit until at least Friday, however these are kept for unforeseen events such as bad weather or expected malfunctions on the orbiter. "The crew is doing very well and they're in very good spirits. You can see that they are ready to tackle anything thrown at them," concluded Jones.