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Space shuttle to land in California

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-12 10:39

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The space shuttle Discovery will land at its backup site in California on Friday because thunderstorms blocked its return home to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the second straight day, NASA said.

The Space Shuttle Discovery leaves contrails in the sky as it comes in to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California, September 11, 2009. Discovery returned to earth from mission STS-128 which delivered supplies and equipment to the International Space Station.[Agencies]

Discovery and its seven astronauts were scheduled to touch down at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert at 8:53 p.m. EDT on Friday (0053 GMT on Saturday).

Related readings:  Shuttle Discovery delivering science tools to Space Station  Shuttle Discovery reaches space station  Shuttle Discovery arrives at space station  Space shuttle Discovery lifts off

"Basically we have a very unstable day at the Kennedy Space Center," said mission commentator Rob Navias.

Discovery is returning from a 14-day mission to restock the International Space Station with food and supplies for the six-member live-aboard crew, and to deliver equipment for fluid physics and materials science experiments.

The station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations, is scheduled to be finished next year after six more shuttle missions. NASA then plans to retire its three-ship fleet of shuttles and move on with development of a capsule and rocket that could ferry crews to the moon as well as to the space station.

Those plans may change as President Barack Obama considers the findings of a study team that determined NASA's budget is about $3 billion a year too small to reach the moon.

The shuttle returns with space station flight engineer Tim Kopra, who has been in orbit for two months. He was replaced by rookie astronaut Nicole Stott, who was the last station crew member to catch a ride on the shuttle. NASA will begin paying Russia to fly astronauts to the space station, at a cost of about $50 million a seat.