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Stormy weather keeps Atlantis aloft another day BY WILLIAM HARWOOD STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION Posted: June 21, 2007 Already running one orbit late, entry flight director Norm Knight, faced with low clouds, area thunderstorms and a pessimistic forecast, told the Atlantis astronauts to back out of re-entry preparations and to stay in space another 24 hours.
Atlantis has enough on-board supplies to remain in orbit until Sunday, but Knight has decided to bring the shuttle home Friday, at either Kennedy or Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., if the weather permits. "The weather forecast for KSC and also what we had given you for Edwards hasn't changed too much for tomorrow so we're going to be fighting the same challenges at KSC," Antonelli radioed. "At Edwards, the winds are going to pick up. So what we've come up with is in about three hours, we're going to do an 11-foot-per second (rocket firing) and what that's going to do for us is pull in an earlier Edwards opportunity and have the potential to get in there before the winds pick up." "OK, understand if we don't get into KSC tomorrow then you're shooting for Edwards after you get two looks at KSC?" Sturckow asked. "We are, of course, calling up Edwards tomorrow," Antonelli said. "We'll have the first look at KSC and now the second look at KSC will overlap with the first look at Edwards. And of course, after the end of the day we'll have a better look at the Saturday forecast, so we're going to put all that into the equation. But we'll be calling up both KSC and Edwards tomorrow." "OK, we understand, so tomorrow if you don't get into KSC and the weather is good at Edwards, you intend to go to Edwards. But if the weather is bad at both places, then we'll look at Saturday and see what happens." "Yeah, if the weather is good at Edwards tomorrow, just like you said, and not at KSC, then we're going to land there," Antonelli agreed. "We are going to try to land tomorrow." "OK, yep, we understand that," Sturckow said. "Thank you very much, Houston. Sounds like a great game plan." The astronauts have two landing opportunities in Florida on Friday - at 2:18 p.m. and 3:54 p.m. - and, with the rocket firing later today, three at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Here is an updated list of all available landing opportunities Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Kennedy (KSC), Edwards (EDW) and White Sands Space Harbor, N.M. (NOR). This list includes the additional Edwards opportunity Friday that was discussed by Antonelli (all times in EDT and subject to change): DAY...EDT.......DD...HH...MM...EVENT 06/21/07 Thu 09:08 PM...13...01...30...Crew sleep begins 06/22/07 Fri 05:08 AM...13...09...30...Crew wakeup Fri 08:13 AM...13...12...35...Group B computer powerup Fri 08:28 AM...13...12...50...IMU alignment Fri 08:58 AM...13...13...20...Laptop computer stow (part 2) Fri 09:13 AM...13...13...35...Deorbit prep timeline begins 06/22/07 Fri 01:16 PM...13...17...38...KSC: Deorbit on rev 218 Fri 02:18 PM...13...18...40...KSC: Landing Fri 02:46 PM...13...19...08...EDW: Deorbit on rev 219 Fri 03:49 PM...13...20...11...EDW: Landing Fri 02:52 PM...13...19...14...KSC: Deorbit on rev 219 Fri 03:54 PM...13...20...16...KSC: Landing Fri 04:21 PM...13...20...43...EDW: Deorbit on rev 220 Fri 05:24 PM...13...21...46...EDW: Landing Fri 05:58 PM...13...22...20...EDW: Deorbit on rev 221 Fri 06:59 PM...13...23...21...EDW: Landing 06/23/07 Sat 11:59 AM...14...16...21...KSC: Deorbit on rev 233 Sat 01:02 PM...14...17...24...KSC: Landing Sat 01:31 PM...14...17...53...NOR: Deorbit on rev 234 Sat 02:33 PM...14...18...55...NOR: Landing Sat 01:35 PM...14...17...57...KSC: Deorbit on rev 234 Sat 02:37 PM...14...18...59...KSC: Landing Sat 03:05 PM...14...19...27...EDW: Deorbit on rev 235 Sat 04:07 PM...14...20...29...EDW: Landing Sat 03:06 PM...14...19...28...NOR: Deorbit on rev 235 Sat 04:08 PM...14...20...30...NOR: Landing Sat 04:40 PM...14...21...02...EDW: Deorbit on rev 236 Sat 05:42 PM...14...22...04...EDW: Landing Sat 04:43 PM...14...21...05...NOR: Deorbit on rev 236 Sat 05:44 PM...14...22...06...NOR: Landing 06/24/07 Sun 12:20 PM...15...16...42...KSC: Deorbit on rev 249 Sun 01:22 PM...15...17...44...KSC: Landing Sun 01:52 PM...15...18...14...NOR: Deorbit on rev 250 Sun 02:54 PM...15...19...16...NOR: Landing Sun 01:56 PM...15...18...18...KSC: Deorbit on rev 250 Sun 02:58 PM...15...19...20...KSC: Landing Sun 03:26 PM...15...19...48...EDW: Deorbit on rev 251 Sun 04:27 PM...15...20...49...EDW: Landing Sun 03:28 PM...15...19...50...NOR: Deorbit on rev 251 Sun 04:27 PM...15...20...49...NOR: Landing Sun 05:02 PM...15...21...24...EDW: Deorbit on rev 252 Sun 06:03 PM...15...22...25...EDW: Landing Meanwhile, space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin today tried and failed to get two space station computers to boot up after jumper cables bypassing suspect power supply switches were removed. The jumpers were installed last week to recover from a crippling failure that knocked all six of the station's main computers out of action. The electronic bypass surgery worked, and all six computers later were rebooted. Early today, with four computers on line and working normally, Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov fired up the two computers held in reserve to make sure they were healthy, then shut them down and removed the bypass cables. They then attempted to restart the machines but they failed to reboot. The test would seem to indicate that whatever problem affected the operation of secondary power supply switches last week was not a transient event. Engineers still don't know what caused the original problem and troubleshooting continues. In the meantime, Yurchikhin plans to restart the station's Elektron oxygen generator later today, one of the last major systems to be reactivated in the wake of the computer trouble last week.
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VIDEO:
UNIQUE VIEW OF STATION OVER TAIL OF ATLANTIS 