Shuttle had to adjust its orbit a tad to miss some debris about 40 minutes ago. HTV launches in about 20 minutes - Japanese unmanned resupply vehicle to space station. The poor guys on the Shuttle think they're gonna land this evening but the weather doesn't look promising. 2 tries at Kennedy to land today (first one 1805 central). Tomorrow looks bad too and we're only considering Kennedy as of now. Saturday we'll consider Edwards. My guess - Saturday in California.

Tom

Tom,
I am a space freak. I love anything to do with space. I have a friend who sends me all the NASA flight pictures, first hand.

I saw the landing, it was so beautiful. Perfect in every way. Although it was in California, and will cost a fortune to bring it back to Florida.

Tom, why does it cost so much to bring it back? We have the carrier plane and equipment to load it on the back, and fuel cost is known, but what else brings up that cost? Just curious, if you know.

Building the rigging and placing the crane for the lifts, for the most part. And it's not a straight flight. Ground support at at least two places to land.

Tom

Keeping fingers crossed and a little prayer to boot.

any updates Tom?

Well... The new Japanese resupply vehicle is going to get grabbed by the space station arm and brought in to dock at 1450 CDT today.

Discovery will leave California tomorrow morning on the 747, weather permitting.

Next shuttle launch is 11/9 IF the Russians cooperate and shift a couple of their timelines, but so far they're not budging, so it may be 11/11 or 11/12.

We lost air conditioning Monday in the part of the mission control complex that houses the space station control room. This was a big deal...

That's all for now

Tom