Discovery due home @4:30AM EST

[beaky]

Those who care are probably still following this, but thought I might mention it here...
Some damage was noted, but no show-stoppers. I'd guess that if this inspection had been done on all flights, the same sort of damage would have been noted in many cases. Some things were repaired; some were left alone.
 So now they just have to make a normal re-entry and landing. I think Collins will do just fine- she doesn't seem the type to worry unnecesarily.
I might just try to wake up to watch this landing live- don't know if we'll see another anutime soon.

[gn85]

Yah, that's awful painful to wake up in the morning to see this, but I'm still interested.  

I agree with ya... I think there's a lot of things they're finding now that have probably been there all along.  

I wonder if they're flying in the dark on purpose to see anything as it reenters.  

[Jared]

Well! I got up REAL early to watch it both on tv and nasa tv and now the weather is too bad their to land this morning so they post poned until tomorrow....  :(

[beaky]

Well, now I don't feel so bad that I slept through the planned landing time...  ;D

[TacitBlue]

Here's a quote from an article on MSNBC about possible landing times and places.

NASA will open up its backup landing sites at Edwards Air Force Base in California and at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico for Tuesday's opportunities. The potential landing times (all Eastern) are 5:07 a.m. and 6:43 a.m. at Kennedy, 8:12 a.m. and 9:47 a.m. at Edwards, and 6:39 a.m. and 8:13 a.m. at White Sands.

[beefhole]

Wait... why's it coming back so soon?  Was this planned? Sorry, haven't been up to date on the shuttle...

[Craig.]

It was only a short mission to test out the shuttle, add to the ISS and remove their rubbish. carry out a few experiments.

[beefhole]

It was only a short mission to test out the shuttle, add to the ISS and remove their rubbish. carry out a few experiments.

That would explain it, thanks Craig.  Now go utside and get some sun.

[Craig.]

Sunlight, arrrrrggghhhhh nooooooo Richie can better explain its mission, but it was definatly not intended to be longer.

[RichieB16]

It was only a short mission to test out the shuttle, add to the ISS and remove their rubbish. carry out a few experiments.

Actually, it was a rather long mission-it was planned at about 13.5 days which is pretty long.

[RichieB16]

Discovery landed safely early today at Edwards AFB in California.

[gn85]

The descent is amazing... listening to them calling out the alts. was pretty amazing.  

"Shuttle's at 7,000 feet" .... a few seconds later... "The shuttle's at 5,000 feet".... a few seconds later... " The shuttle's at 3,000 feet".   Thing comes in like a lawn dart.  

Glad to see things are back on track.  Great job.

[beaky]

Discovery landed safely early today at Edwards AFB in California.

[DJ_Zephyr]

*phew* The old girl did it again!

Still dun understand why they landed it so early.  If I was flying that monster, I'd want a little daylight!

[RichieB16]

[quote]Still dun understand why they landed it so early.