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Discovery Prepares For Midday Landing

By Associated Press

Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center just after 12 Noon CST. Discovery Prepares For Midday Landing

Published: Wed, November 07, 2007 - 9:45 am Last Updated: Wed, November 07, 2007 - 9:49 am

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER (AP) - It's been a long and stressful 15
days in space, and Discovery's crew is getting set to come home
shortly.
The orbiter's payload bay doors have been closed and the space
shuttle astronauts are getting into their re-entry suits. If the
weather continues to hold, the shuttle is set to touch down at
Kennedy Space Center just after one o'clock Eastern Time.
Discovery commander Pam Melroy asked for a daytime landing to
give her crew a little extra rest after a demanding mission. That
means the shuttle will come in from the northwest to southeast,
approaching over the continental U.S. for the first time since the
Columbia disaster in 2003.
If Discovery lands on its first opportunity, NASA says people
might be able to look up and see the streaking orbiter high
overhead around Topeka, Kansas; Memphis, Tennessee; Birmingham,
Alabama and Columbus, Georgia.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)