Discovery crew prepares for landing

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery were ready to put on the brakes today and begin descending from orbit with hopes of having their feet back on the ground before daybreak.

The crew resumed preparations for landing after spending an extra day in space because cloud cover in Florida forced postponement of yesterday’s planned return to Earth.

“We hope that you and your crew enjoyed your last day on orbit because we intend to bring you home today,” Mission Control told Discovery commander Eileen Collins, who said her colleagues were prepared for the fiery, dangerous ride back to Earth.

The astronauts powered up their spacecraft a second time and closed Discovery’s payload bay doors as they awaited word on which, if any, of several landing opportunities they would attempt.

“We sure hope we get our feet on the ground today,” astronaut Wendy Lawrence radioed after Mission Control roused the astronauts late last night with the Beatles song “Good Day Sunshine”.

Controllers said the song was appropriate after the crew had to abandon two attempts to return yesterday when clouds obscured the runway at the Kennedy Space Centre.

Today’s forecast remained sketchy at the space centre, but Flight Director LeRoy Cain was confident he would get the crew to Florida or one of two alternate sites.

“We will attempt to land somewhere,” Cain said.

The space centre remained Nasa’s first choice for an early morning touchdown. Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert was the next choice, and White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico was a distant third.

Good conditions were expected at Edwards, while rain was in the forecast for White Sands.

Nasa prefers landing shuttles at the same place where it launches them, to avoid the several days and estimated €809,000 needed to ferry the spacecraft back from the West Coast atop a modified jumbo jet.

Yesterday’s delay disappointed astronauts’ families, who anxiously awaited Discovery’s return. The mission, originally intended to last 12 days, has now spanned 14.

Discovery has enough fuel and supplies to stay in orbit until tomorrow, but Nasa wants to hold out that option only if a technical problem arises.

Discovery is the first shuttle to return to orbit since Columbia’s catastrophic re-entry in 2003. But Discovery’s launch and flight to the international space station could be the last for a long while.

Nasa grounded the shuttle fleet after a nearly 1lb chunk of insulating foam broke off Discovery’s external fuel tank during its July 26 lift-off – the very thing that doomed Columbia and was supposed to have been corrected.

Discovery spent nine days hitched to the space station, where astronauts resupplied the orbiting lab and removed broken equipment and trash – one of the main goals of the mission.

Another day was added to the mission when Nasa grounded its fleet so astronauts could do additional work on the station. Discovery was the first shuttle to visit the orbiting outpost since 2002.

As a result of Columbia, Discovery’s crew performed intense inspections of their ship on five different days. Astronauts also did a spacewalk to test new repair techniques and replaced a failed gyroscope on the station during another spacewalk.

In a third, unprecedented spacewalk, two protruding thermal tile fillers were removed from Discovery's belly. Engineers feared the material could cause dangerous overheating during re-entry.

Columbia was doomed by a 1.67lb piece of foam that broke free from an external fuel tank at launch. The foam pierced a hole in the ship’s left wing, and as the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, searing gases melted the wing from the inside. All seven astronauts aboard were killed.

Former shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden said there comes a time when every astronaut is ready to return home – no matter how risky the ride.

“You always want to stay inspace. You don’t ever want to come home, but you invariably get homesick,” he said. “With every orbit that you don’t come home, it gets more and more frustrating.”