CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Thunderstorms prevented space shuttle Atlantis from returning to its home base Saturday for the second day in a row, and kept the astronauts circling Earth after a successful repair job at the Hubble Space Telescope.
The offshore storms, which later moved in, prompted NASA to skip both morning landing attempts at Kennedy Space Center.
Despite an equally dismal forecast for today, Mission Control opted to wait out the bad weather rather than take a detour to California.
As Atlantis soared overhead, right around what would have been landing time, commander Scott Altman called down that he saw "a pretty solid mass of clouds.”
"It looks to us like maybe it is starting to break up and move out, so we’re hopeful to get home tomorrow,” he said.
"We’re sharing your optimism,” Mission Control replied.
Atlantis’ seven astronauts made it further into their landing preparations than they did Friday, when storms directly over the Florida landing site resulted in much earlier cancellations.
Altman and his crew are trying to wind up their Hubble repair mission, which began May 11.
It was NASA’s last visit to the 19-year-old observatory. The $1 billion overhaul should keep the telescope working for another five to 10 years.
Other options
The weather at the backup landing site, Edwards Air Force Base, is expected to be good all weekend, but it takes time and money — close to $2 million — to ferry a shuttle cross-country.
As for Florida, forecasters expected more bad weather from the same low-pressure system that has been drenching Florida for days. But there was a slight chance that conditions would improve, and that was enough for NASA to ride it out another day. Atlantis has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday.
This was the fifth and final visit to Hubble by astronauts. The space telescope will be steered into the Pacific sometime in the early 2020s; a docking ring was installed by Atlantis’ astronauts just for that purpose.
by the associated press
The offshore storms, which later moved in, prompted NASA to skip both morning landing attempts at Kennedy Space Center.
Despite an equally dismal forecast for today, Mission Control opted to wait out the bad weather rather than take a detour to California.
As Atlantis soared overhead, right around what would have been landing time, commander Scott Altman called down that he saw "a pretty solid mass of clouds.”
"It looks to us like maybe it is starting to break up and move out, so we’re hopeful to get home tomorrow,” he said.
"We’re sharing your optimism,” Mission Control replied.
Atlantis’ seven astronauts made it further into their landing preparations than they did Friday, when storms directly over the Florida landing site resulted in much earlier cancellations.
Altman and his crew are trying to wind up their Hubble repair mission, which began May 11.
It was NASA’s last visit to the 19-year-old observatory. The $1 billion overhaul should keep the telescope working for another five to 10 years.
Other options
The weather at the backup landing site, Edwards Air Force Base, is expected to be good all weekend, but it takes time and money — close to $2 million — to ferry a shuttle cross-country.
As for Florida, forecasters expected more bad weather from the same low-pressure system that has been drenching Florida for days. But there was a slight chance that conditions would improve, and that was enough for NASA to ride it out another day. Atlantis has enough supplies to remain in orbit until Monday.
This was the fifth and final visit to Hubble by astronauts. The space telescope will be steered into the Pacific sometime in the early 2020s; a docking ring was installed by Atlantis’ astronauts just for that purpose.
by the associated press
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