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| Atlantis prepares for return to Earth | | | CAPE CANAVERAL, — NASA managers who are keeping close tabs on the weather Thursday as thunderstorms and low clouds threatened to prevent space shuttle Atlantis and its seven astronauts from landing after a trip to the international space station.
The shuttle's first landing opportunity was at 1:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, when predictions called for thunderstorms within 34 miles and clouds within 8,000 feet of the landing strip at Kennedy Space Center. Attempting to land so close to rain or clouds would violate flight rules. The next chance would be at 3:30 p.m. EDT, they added.
"Tomorrow is the first day of summer, and we know what summer brings to Florida, and that is afternoon thunderstorms," John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, stated on Thursday.
NASA also underlined that Atlantis will have seven landing opportunities over four days.
Mission Control said opportunities at Kennedy, the primary landing site, look slightly more promising on Friday and Saturday. While on Friday, they could also consider using a backup landing site in California and another backup site plus another in New Mexico would be activated Saturday if necessary. Control Mission also claimed that Atlantis has enough power for its systems to orbit until Sunday, but managers want the shuttle to land by Saturday. The flight would only be extended to Sunday if there were technical problems that needed to be fixed.
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