At 11:21 p.m. EDT Monday, Mission Control played “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson as the wakeup call for space shuttle Discovery’s crew, Commander Alan Poindexter, Pilot Jim Dutton, Mission Specialists Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Clay Anderson and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Naoko Yamazaki.
Everything currently is “go” for Discovery’s planned 7:34 a.m. landing at Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility, runway 15. Discovery’s payload bay doors are closed and the astronauts have donned their orange launch and entry suits. Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney and his team continue to assess weather conditions at Kennedy. The only concern is for the formation of fog that could obscure the runway during Discovery’s landing attempt. The National Weather Service Spaceflight Meteorology Group in Houston is advising Lunney on the current conditions and those forecast for the time of landing. At this time, the weather is observed and forecast “go.” Astronaut Chris Ferguson is flying weather reconnaissance at Kennedy to aid Lunney in his decision.
Lunney is expected to make a “go-no go” decision for landing by 6:18 a.m., setting up a deorbit burn at 6:28 a.m.