At 15:12, Israel time, the shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Avi Blizovsky and Amit Oren
Discovery crew members at an impromptu press conference after landing in California.
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17: 15 Update
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said at a press conference held shortly after the landing that the mission appeared to have ended successfully except for the fall of 5 foam blocks that were more than the size that NASA was willing to afford. Since this was a test flight, those responsible for the external fuel tank will now have data from a real flight to make the necessary changes to prevent crashes in the future.
In response to questions from journalists at the Kennedy Space Center, Griffin said that he hopes the next shuttle flight will take place this year and that this desire will not come at the expense of compromising safety.
Later, the television stations showed footage showing the shuttle crew patrolling underneath it and inspecting areas affected by the penetration of the atmosphere.
Discovery's flight to Florida will take at least ten days. In the meantime, NASA sent a plane to the Edwards Space Base in California with 170 of the agency's employees who will immediately begin inspecting the shuttle.
The flight itself is a complicated logistical operation. The shuttle will be loaded as a hitchhiker on the back of a Boeing 747 that was specially converted for this purpose. The estimated cost of such an operation is at least one million dollars.
Update – 9/8, 15:17
Commander Eileen Collins and pilot James Kelly ignited the engines at 15:06 to remove Discovery from its orbit. Six minutes later - the ferry landed safely.
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Earlier, the shuttle turned on its engines in order to slow itself down and begin a free fall in the direction of KDA.
At 14:06, Israel time, the shuttle ignited its orbital maneuvering engines for about three minutes, at an altitude of 329 km.
The shuttle began to feel the scorching heat effects of the atmosphere at 14:40, Israel time, and exposed its underside to the intense heat. The shuttle will hit the atmosphere at an altitude of 120 km and at a speed of about 23,360 km/h.
Under certain conditions, you can reach a temperature of 1600 Celsius inside the shuttle, hot enough to melt iron.
Update – 9/8, 12:25
NASA will attempt to land the shuttle at Edward Air Force Base (Edwards) at 15:12 Israel time.
As mentioned, moving the shuttle from California to Florida will cost NASA a million dollars, and loading it onto the 747 plane that will carry it from California will take over a week.
Update – 9/8, 11:15
The shuttle will have two opportunities to land at each site. The landing sites are located in California, Florida and New Mexico.
Assuming the shuttle lands at a base in California, it will take a week and a million dollars to return it to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Update Monday, August 8.8.05, 14 at 45:XNUMX p.m
"Our hearts are heavy for this decision" said the shuttle's landing manager, Leroy Kane (the same person who was waiting in vain for the Columbia landing in the control room in Houston). "A layer of low clouds continues to form at a height of 400-500 feet. They gathered like that all evening." added
The cloud cover is still at the landing safety limit but that was enough for the control center personnel to cancel the landing attempt on Monday.
Mission Commander Eileen Collins received the abort order from control center personnel at 05:05 a.m. EST.
"We're just not comfortable with the stability of the situation for this particular occasion, so we'll have to officially put you off for 24 hours." Ken Ham from the control center told the shuttle crew. "Thanks Houston, we got it. We are canceling the landing today."
NASA prefers to land at the Kennedy Spaceport to avoid the inconvenience of flying the shuttle back, therefore launching from the alternate fields in California and New Mexico.
Mark Polanski, who was the pilot of the shuttle Atlantis in 2001, said that the wait is easier for the crew members on the shuttle than for their families.
"It's very difficult for the people on the ground." said. The families do not know when their loved ones will return home."
Polanski and astronaut Nicholas Patrick are assigned to fly on Discovery in 2006. Patrick says that the astronauts have more than enough supply until they return.
Update: NASA postpones the landing by at least one lap - to 13:22
11: 00 Update
We had already thought of reporting an imminent landing at 11:45, but at the Kennedy Space Center there is prevailing weather that does not allow a landing. NASA says that low clouds prevented the planned landing, especially when darkness should still prevail in the area (4:46 am local time). Discovery will make another orbit of the Earth and at this point it is scheduled to land at 13:22.
00: 00 Update
The space shuttle Discovery flies alone. Its crew woke up at an odd time - 20:39 EST (03:39 Israel time) for a full day of space flight before they land on Monday at 04:46 EST - 11:46 Israel time.
The last day is a quiet day for the crew members who spent almost nine days on joint missions with the 11th International Launch Station crew before saying goodbye to them on Saturday. Together they moved tons of supplies and equipment to and from the station, performed three spacewalks and tried techniques to repair the shuttle's heat shield.
STS-114 was the most photographed flight and set new standards for spaceflight. Unprecedented imaging systems assisted engineers in evaluating the performance of the external fuel tank and ensuring the safety of the heat shield back to Earth.
For the first time, a sensor system on the middle deck was flown into space, they also performed the first "reverse" in space (to show their underbelly to the station crew and they photographed them up close in high resolution and sent the photos to NASA engineers) and of course the third record was the historic spacewalk for repair in space .
Want a hand? Steve Robinson carrying his spacesuit gloves through the airlock when Discovery was still docked at the International Space Station. Photo: NASA.
The mission page on the NASA website
Ydan "Back to Space"
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