Space Shuttle to Land on Friday – 60th Landing for NASA in Florida

The orbiter Atlantis is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Friday, Oct. 18, at about 11:44 a.m. EDT completing the 11-day STS-112 mission to deliver and install the S1 Integrated Truss Segment and a Crew Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) cart on the International Space Station. Atlantis launched from KSC on Oct. 7, 2002, at 3:46 p.m. EDT.

Landing at KSC’s Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) is slated to occur on orbit 170 at mission elapsed time 10 days, 19 hours, 58 minutes. The deorbit burn will occur at about 10:36 a.m. EDT. A second KSC landing opportunity is also available on Oct. 18 at 1:21 p.m. EDT with a deorbit burn coming at 12:16 p.m. EDT. No landing opportunities are planned for the back-up landing location at Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), Calif., on Friday.

If managers must keep Atlantis in orbit an additional day, two landing opportunities are available at KSC on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 10:31 a.m. EDT and at 12:06 p.m. EDT.

If landing occurs as scheduled, it will be the 60th landing at KSC in the history of the Shuttle program. Following landing, Atlantis will be serviced and prepared for its next mission, STS-114, scheduled for launch in March 2003.

About an hour after touchdown, the STS-112 crew will be taken to their KSC quarters to meet with their families and undergo initial physical examinations. A post-mission press conference with select members of the STS-112 crew is scheduled to occur at the KSC News Center about six hours after touchdown.

If Atlantis lands at Edwards, an augmented KSC convoy team will be on-site to safe the vehicle, disembark the crew and move the orbiter to the Mate/Demate Device. The turnaround team will be deployed to Edwards by charter aircraft on landing day.

Source: NASA