Discovery Lands at KSC; Attention Turns to Atlantis
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
By: Judith Smelser

April 20, 2010 -- Space Shuttle Discovery is back on Earth. The orbiter landed at Kennedy Space Center Tuesday morning, after more than two weeks in space. NASA is now getting ready to launch Space Shuttle Atlantis next month.

Bad weather on Monday forced Discovery to spend an extra day in orbit, but the clouds parted long enough Tuesday for the shuttle and its seven-member crew to touch down at Kennedy Space Center just after 9am.

Discovery’s mission included three spacewalks outside the International Space Station.  The main task was to replace a component of the station’s cooling system.

NASA has just three space shuttle missions scheduled before the agency plans to retire the shuttle fleet later this year.  The next flight will be Space Shuttle Atlantis, targeted for launch on May 14.  Technicians are preparing to send Atlantis to its Kennedy Space Center launch pad as early as Tuesday evening, though weather is threatening to delay the rollout.

Atlantis is slated to be on standby as a rescue spacecraft for the final shuttle flight in September.  NASA’s Mike Moses says unless that emergency launch is needed, next month’s mission, dubbed STS-132, will be the last one for the craft.

“There’s been a lot of talk from the Administration politically about whether you go ahead and fly that rescue vehicle since you have the hardware here in stack,” he said Tuesday, “but there’s been no decision made there, and from a planning purpose standpoint, we’re still planning on 132 being the last flight of Atlantis.”

NASA Launch director Pete Nickolenko says the tight launch schedule is keeping workers on their toes. “It’s a busy time,” he said, “but it’s all standard work, and it’s all very manageable.”

He says things will stay busy for NASA through the rest of the year.  If the current schedule holds, Shuttle Endeavour will make its last flight in July, and Discovery will fly NASA’s final shuttle mission in September.