The Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to return to Earth on Thursday September 10 Friday September 11, after nearly 2 weeks in space. The entire landing will be broadcast live by Livestream partners Spaceflight Now and at http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow.
When the Shuttle touches down at Kennedy Space Center tomorrow it will mark the end of the 30th manned mission to the International Space Station, which brought fresh supplies to the astronauts already in space.
If you haven’t seen a Shuttle landing before, it is a fascinating process. Mission managers decide if weather is suitable at the landing site. If it is, astronauts fire the engines and do a “Deorbit Burn” about an hour before landing time. If the weather is not suitable, astronauts will be told to circle the Earth another time instead of firing the engines, delaying the landing by approximately 90 minutes.
The planned schedule for tomorrow’s landing is:
- 5:59pm EST: Deorbit Burn begins
- 7:05pm EST Shuttle lands
- Second Attempt: 7:36 pm Eastern Deorbit burn
- Landing: 8:42pm Eastern
The updated Schedule for Friday’s opportunities will be:
Kennedy Space Center
- 1st landing opportunity
- 5:48p EDT/9:48p GMT
- 2nd landing opportunity
- 7:23p EDT/11:23p GMT
Edwards Air Force Base
- 1st landing opportunity 8:53p EDT/12:53a GMT
- 2nd landing opportunity 10:28p EDT/2:28a GMT
You can watch the embedded stream on Spaceflight Now’s Mission Status Center, or on their Livestream channel page: http://www.livestream.com/spaceflightnow
