SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*Management Team Clears Discovery for Re-Entry; Crew Prepares for Friday Landing*

Image above: Space Shuttle Discovery is pictured from a miniature satellite that was released from Discovery's payload bay on Wednesday. Image Credit: DOD Space Test Program TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

About 3:35 p.m. EST, flight controllers at the Mission Control Center in Houston told Commander Mark Polansky that the Mission Management Team has cleared Space Shuttle Discovery for re-entry. The decision came after analysis of data collected during Wednesday’s inspection of Discovery’s heat shield.

Discovery’s first landing opportunity is scheduled at 3:56 p.m. EST Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. If weather does not cooperate, six more opportunities at three landing sites are available. The Friday weather forecast currently calls for a chance of rain and low clouds at Kennedy, potential strong crosswinds at Edwards Air Force Base in California and acceptable landing conditions at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico.

The last opportunity at Kennedy is at 5:32 p.m. Three exist at Edwards – 5:27 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8:36 p.m. Two are available at White Sands – 5:27 p.m. and 7:02 p.m. All three sites will be activated. Landing opportunities also are available Saturday at all three sites.

In preparation for landing, Polansky and Pilot Bill Oefelein checked out Discovery’s systems and jets that will be used in the deorbit burn and landing. Also, crew members are busy stowing equipment and other items. Other preparations include a review of the landing procedure and stowage of the Ku-band antenna.

The crew members took a break this afternoon to talk with reporters from CNN and ABC News and with students at the Kenai, Alaska, Challenger Center.

In other activities, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment (ANDE) was deployed from Discovery's payload bay at 1:23 p.m. ANDE will measure the density and composition of the low-Earth orbit atmosphere while being tracked from the ground. The data will be used to better predict the movement of objects in orbit. Two other small satellites were deployed Wednesday night.

Discovery undocked from the station Tuesday, ending an eight-day stay at the orbital outpost. While there, the crew continued the construction of the station with the addition of the P5 spacer truss segment during the first of four spacewalks. The next two spacewalks rewired the station’s power system, leaving it in a permanent setup. A fourth spacewalk was added to allow the crew to retract solar arrays that had folded improperly.

Discovery also delivered a new crew member and more than two tons of equipment and supplies to the station. Almost two tons of items no longer needed on the station will return to Earth with STS-116.