March 25, 2009
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The space shuttle Discovery's crew is expected to complete its mission to the International Space Station with a landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 1:43 p.m. EDT on Saturday, March 28. The return to Earth will conclude a 13-day flight. Nine of those days were spent docked to the station.
During the STS-119 mission, the shuttle and station crews installed and deployed the final set of solar arrays. The arrays provide the electricity to fully power science experiments and support the station's expanded crew of six in May. The flight also delivered Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata, who replaced space station crew member Sandra Magnus. She spent more than four months aboard the station and will return to Earth aboard Discovery.
The entry flight control team in Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will evaluate weather conditions at Kennedy before permitting Discovery to return to Earth. Saturday's landing opportunities at Kennedy are at 1:43 p.m. and 3:19 p.m. If weather prevents a Kennedy landing Saturday, the secondary landing site at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., will be activated Sunday for consideration as well.
Approximately two hours after landing, NASA officials will hold a media briefing to discuss the mission. The participants will be:
- Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for Space Operations, NASA Headquarters, Washington
- Mike Leinbach, NASA space shuttle launch director, Kennedy
After touchdown in Florida, the astronauts will undergo physical examinations and meet with their families. The STS-119 crew is expected to hold a news conference about five hours after landing Saturday. Both news events will be broadcast live on NASA Television. Media interested in participating in the news conference at Kennedy must pick up their accreditation badges Friday.
The Kennedy News Center will open for landing activities at 9:30 a.m. Saturday and close at 8 p.m. or one hour after the last media event. The STS-119 media badges are in effect through landing. The media accreditation building on State Road 3 will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. The last bus will depart from the news center for the Shuttle Landing Facility one hour before landing. For updated information about the landing, call 321-867-2525.
If the landing is diverted to Edwards, news media should call the Dryden public affairs office at 661-276-3449. Dryden has limited facilities available for use by previously accredited journalists.
Live updates to the NASA News Twitter feed are added throughout the shuttle mission and landing. To access the NASA News
Twitter feed and other agency Twitter feeds, visit:
For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit:
For the latest information about the STS-119 mission, visit:
For information about the International Space Station, visit:
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