Weather may cut short shuttle flight

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 8

Weather may cut short shuttle flight

NZPA-Reuter Houston The flight of the space shuttle Atlantis would be cut short because strong winds were forecast at the landing site in California, U.S. space agency officials said yesterday. The flight director, Ron Dittemore, told reporters that winds of 50km/h were expected on Monday at Edwards Air Force base and that officials planned to

bring the shuttle back one orbit or 90 minutes early at 1.08 a.m. However, Mr Dittemore said the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could still elect to bring Atlantis back two orbits early if weather conditions are not acceptable at the landing site. “We’re going to delay a decision until tomorrow morning on whether or not we’ve decided to

keep with the option of (landing) two (revolutions) earlier," Mr Dittemore told reporters at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston. N.A.S.A. regulations forbid landing if crosswinds exceed 30km/h, tailwinds 20km/h or headwinds 45km/h. The change in landing times will require the five-member crew to go to sleep 90 minutes

earlier and to wake up 90 minutes earlier today. Despite the concerns over landing conditions, Atlantis performed smoothly on the fourth day of its flight. It took off on Wednesday, launching the probe Galileo on a journey to Jupiter. The five-member crew spent Saturday morning working with the Mesoscale Lightning Experiment during a lightning display in Australia.