Discovery to Perform Orbital Adjustment Burn

Space shuttle Discovery will perform an orbital adjustment burn at 12:02 p.m. EDT to avoid an unidentified piece of debris.

The latest tracking data indicates that the debris will move in and out of the conjunction box around Discovery. The first time it would move within the box would be at about 12:55 p.m. Although unclear, the object is believed to be from the mission's third spacewalk.

After the maneuver, the debris will no longer be an issue.

This move will not have an impact on the shuttle's deorbit burn times scheduled for today, which begin with a planned deorbit burn at 5:59 p.m. and a daylight landing at 7:05 p.m. The next opportunity is one hour after sunset with the deorbit burn at 7:36 p.m. and a landing at 8:42 p.m.