Space Shuttle Discovery Scheduled to Land Early Friday Morning
News story originally written on February 20, 1997
The Discovery Space Shuttle is scheduled to land at 1:48 am EST on
Friday, February 21, at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This will be only the fourth time that a nighttime landing of a Shuttle will
occur at the KSC.
If weather is inclement, the second landing opportunity will be at 3:31am on
Friday at KSC. There are also landing opportunities at Edwards Air Force Base
in California at 3:22am and 5:04am EST.
Friday's weather at KSC is expected to be good with scattered clouds from
3000 feet and winds of 6 to 10 knots from the southwest.
As of Thursday morning, the current orbital altitude and inclination of the
Shuttle is 360 miles at 28.45 degrees. The mission duration has been 9 days, 21
hours, and 53 minutes.
The Discovery mission consisted of making several repairs to the Hubble Space
Telescope. The mission thus far has been a complete success. The Hubble Space
Telescope was put back into orbit at 1:41 am on Thursday, February 20.
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