With thunderstorms looming back home, shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven sidestepped a small piece of space junk Thursday then aimed for an evening touchdown that was in jeopardy because of the weather.
Mission Control said the forecast was deteriorating, with a growing chance of thunderstorms and stiff wind. Nevertheless, the astronauts were instructed to remain on track in hopes they might catch a break in the weather and end their 13-day space station delivery mission.
Friday’s forecast was even worse, with little improvement Saturday. NASA said it would consider the backup landing site in Southern California as early as Friday, if Discovery could not return to its Florida home port on Thursday. The shuttle has enough supplies to stay up until Sunday.
Earlier, around noontime, commander Rick Sturckow and his co-pilot fired Discovery’s engines to move out of the way of a mysterious piece of orbiting junk. The debris apparently came off the linked shuttle and international space station during a spacewalk by astronauts on Saturday.
Specialists did not know how big the piece was — or even what it was — but determined it was going to pass uncomfortably close to Discovery over a period of 12 hours beginning Thursday afternoon. The threat went away after the pilots lowered the shuttle’s orbit slightly.
NASA had to contend with two other pieces of space junk during the flight, while the shuttle still was docked to the international space station. No dodging was required in those cases.
There was good news Thursday on the space station front: A brand new Japanese cargo ship successfully rocketed into orbit carrying a full load of supplies. It’s due at the outpost next Thursday. It will be plucked from orbit by the station’s robot arm.
Discovery dropped off tons of equipment and experiments at the space station, as well as a fresh crew member. The shuttle is returning with garbage, surplus gear, science samples, a former station resident and Buzz Lightyear. The 12-inch action figure doll has been in orbit for 15 months and awaits a tickertape parade at Walt Disney World.
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NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission(underscore)pages/shuttle/main/index.html
