The space shuttle Discovery is on its way home

The seven astronauts of mission STS-116 prepare for landing on Friday, at 15:56 (22:56 Israel time)

The seven astronauts on the Space Shuttle Discovery prepare to land on Friday at 15:56 PM EST (22:56 PM Israel time) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA maintains a severe weather alert in Florida, at the Edwards Spaceport in California, and at the spaceport White Sands in New Mexico.

This morning, Commander Mark Polanski and his deputy Bill Opline checked the Discovery systems and the engines that will be used for entering the atmosphere and landing. The team members were also busy arranging their personal equipment and other items. Later they were briefed on the preparations for landing and we stowed the antenna transmitting on Ku-band frequencies.

The two also held interviews with the CNN and ABC networks and spoke with students at the Challenger Center in Kenai, Alaska.

The astronauts also released a small satellite into space called the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE). The satellite will measure observations and the composition of the atmosphere in low orbit while NASA will follow it from the ground. The data will be used to better predict the movement of objects in orbit. Two more small satellites were released from the shuttle on Wednesday night.