The astronauts on space shuttle Discovery are ready to wrap up a nearly 13-day flight with a landing this evening at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first task for Pilot Kevin Ford and Commander Rick Sturckow was to make ready for an orbital adjustment engine firing to move Discovery out of the path of a piece of orbital debris. That burn of Discovery’s orbital maneuvering system engines was performed at 12:02 p.m. EDT. The maneuver will not alter the scheduled landing opportunities today.

Mission specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas, Christer Fuglesang and Tim Kopra join Sturckow and Ford to begin deorbit preparations about 1 p.m. as they get themselves and their ship ready for the ride home.

The deorbit burn for today’s first landing opportunity today, on orbit 202, is at 5:59 p.m. Discovery would cross above southern Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico, skirt west of Cuba and cross the Florida coast above Sarasota, with landing at Kennedy’s runway 15 at 7:05 p.m. A second landing opportunity at Kennedy today would put the shuttle and crew on the ground at 8:42 p.m. The weather forecast for both opportunities today calls for a chance of thunderstorms within 30 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility. 

Landing Day Milestones

EDT                EVENT
10:59 am        Discovery crew wakes up (begins Flight Day 14)
Noon               Entry team on console in Mission Control
1:44 pm          Weather briefing
1:59 pm          Deorbit preparation begins
3:19 pm          Discovery’s payload bay doors are closed
3:29 pm          Mission Control “Go” for Ops 3 software transition
4:19 pm          Shuttle Training Aircraft takeoff for weather recon (Steve Lindsey)
4:36 pm          Discovery astronauts don launch and entry suits
4:59 pm          Seat ingress
5:16 pm          Orbital Maneuvering System engine gimbal checks
5:26 pm          Auxiliary Power Unit prestart
5:39 pm          Mission Control “Go-No Go” for deorbit burn
5:48 pm          Discovery maneuvered to deorbit burn attitude
5:49:07 pm     Deorbit burn (duration 2 minutes, 55 seconds, changing Discovery’s velocity by 202 miles per hour)
6:33:57 pm     Entry Interface (range 5,071 miles)
6:38:57 pm     First roll command (to the right)  
6:46:01 pm     First roll reversal (right to left)
7:02:09 pm     Heading Alignment Circle intercept (250 degree left overhead turn to Runway 15)
7:05:40 pm     Discovery lands after completing 202 orbits and traveling 5,304,140 miles
Source: NASA