Landing Opportunities in Florida and California


There are four opportunities at two landing sites to bring space shuttle Discovery and its crew home to Earth today after a flight to resupply the International Space Station and deliver a new crew member.

The deorbit burn for the first KSC landing opportunity is at 4:41 p.m. EDT with landing at 5:48 p.m. The second Florida landing window begins with a deorbit burn at 6:17 p.m. and ends with a landing at 7:23 p.m.

The first landing opportunity in California has a deorbit burn time of 7:47 p.m. with landing at 8:53 p.m. The second opportunity would start with a deorbit burn at 9:23 p.m. and end with a landing at 10:28 p.m.

A landing today will complete a two-week flight for Sturckow, Pilot Kevin Ford, and mission specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and Christer Fuglesang. Today is the 58th day in space for their crewmate Tim Kopra, who launched on shuttle mission STS-127 in July and spent two months on the International Space Station as an Expedition 20 crew member.