Shuttle landing delayed for a day Thunderstorms and strong winds meant that the US space agency Nasa skipped both Thursday landing possibilities. The shuttle, which is returning from a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), will have to orbit the earth for a 14th day. The new landing slot is at 21:54 GMT on Friday.
The shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Centre later after completing its mission to the International Space Station (ISS). It is not certain though that the orbiter will be able to get down as planned because of poor weather. Thunderstorms and strong winds at its Florida landing site may force the ship to delay its return by a day.
Discovery was scheduled to land at around 23:00 GMT at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but thunderstorms and high crosswinds prevented its landing. The shuttle has another chance to land today at 00:40 GMT, 11th September.
Discovery to dodge debris before landing Shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts will soon begin preparing for a planned 7:05 p.m. landing at Kennedy Space Centre, a process that will start with a manoeuvre to avoid a piece of debris dislodged during the mission's third spacewalk.
Hatches between shuttle Discovery and International Space Station are closed as the shuttle's departure nears Tuesday afternoon. Seven shuttle astronauts and six station residents exchanged hugs and handshakes in a brief farewell ceremony around 10:30 p.m. before the crews parted.
Astronaut Nicole Stott takes first spacewalk Astronaut Nicole Stott took her first spacewalk on Wednesday. The wife of Manxman Chris Stott, head of ManSat, is a crew member of the STS128 mission to the International Space Station.
Atheists say that NASA is violating separation of church and state An Atheist-First Amendment public policy group charged last week that NASA is violating the separation of church and state by permitting a "space missionary" memento on the latest Discovery Space Shuttle Mission. On board the shuttle is a piece of an airplane that crashed in Ecuador in 1956 that carried members of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship. One of the shuttle astronaut contacted the Idaho-based group proposing that the item be taken into space as part of a government-funded exploration project.
Discovery and International Space Station crew members will focus on the transfer of the Leonardo Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from Discovery's payload bay to the station's Harmony node. Later, the crew will open Leonardo's hatch and move the new life support and science research racks into the space station. Read more