Space Shuttle Discovery Crew Begins Deorbit Preparations

Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery are set to land at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today at 1:39PM EST. The weather conditions look favorable for the return flight home.

The seven person crew on Discovery spent 13 days of their missions installing the space station's last $300 million set of solar wings which brought the station up to full power to support a six person crew this spring. The double occupancy will allow researchers to perform more science work aboard the space station.

The STS-119 mission also allowed the crew to repair and successfully test the Urine Recycler. The Urine Recycler System on the ISS turns urine and sweat into clean drinking water. The station crew depends now on water carried up aboard a space shuttle or cargo rocket. But an operational water recycler is expected to cut that need by 65 percent by producing about 6,000 pounds of potable water each year. That's enough fresh water to allow the station to host six crew members instead of three. The recycling system can recycle about 93% of the water that goes through the system.

Beginning at 8:33AM the crew will begin the deorbit preparations. Discovery will fire its engines at 12:33 p.m. to begin the descent to Florida. A second opportunity is available if needed for Discovery to land at Kennedy on Saturday, beginning with a deorbit burn engine firing at 2:08 p.m. leading to a 3:14 p.m. touchdown.