Discovery's Test Tonight

Discovery's Test Tonight


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Astronauts on the shuttle Discovery are preparing for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere early on Monday.

The shuttle is expected to land early on Monday morning at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral. The touchdown time, weather permitting, has been set for 0446 EDT (0946 BST; 0846 GMT).

Nasa has declared the shuttle safe to withstand the burning descent that shattered Columbia in February 2003. On Saturday, Discovery undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) before flying around the space lab to check it for wear and tear. 'Mission accomplished'

"I think Discovery is in absolutely great shape," said Discovery Commander Eileen Collins on Sunday. "It performed well in ascent.

"This morning we did a flight control system checkout. Everything checked out fine. I'm pretty confident about re-entry, I'm thinking about the landing.

"We're going to have thoughts about Columbia, but we'll be very focused on the job at hand."
Flight director LeRoy Cain said the weather forecast looked good for Monday's pre-dawn landing at Cape Canaveral.

It is Nasa's first landing since Columbia broke apart on re-entry as a result of damage sustained during its launch. But Mr Cain said Nasa cannot dwell on Columbia's failure. "We're looking forward, we're not looking back," he said.

Crew members and Nasa manager hailed what they said was the complete success of the mission, largely aimed at testing changes made to the spacecraft since Columbia. Discovery's visit to the ISS may be the last shuttle mission for some time. Nasa has grounded the fleet until it fixes the flying debris problem, which destroyed Columbia and resurfaced at Discovery's launch on 26 July.

Because of safety measures put in place after Columbia, Discovery has been videotaped, photographed and laser-inspected. In a shuttle program first, it has also been repaired by Steve Robinson and Japanese crew member Soichi Noguchi during one of their three spacewalks.
The men removed two loose cloth strips, which were protruding from the shuttle's belly.