Mission Control Center
Status Report #21
 
Monday, September 19, 1994 -- 7 a.m. CDT
 
Flight controllers are keeping an eye on weather at in Florida and California 
while the STS-64 crew prepares Discovery for the trip home after spending 
almost 10 full days in orbit.
 
Four landing opportunities -- two to Florida and two to California -- exist 
for Discovery today. The first and primary opportunity begins with a 
deorbit burn at 12:23 p.m. CDT on the mission's 158th orbit leading to a 
1:23 p.m. CDT touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A 
second opportunity to land at KSC would begin with a deorbit burn at 1:55 
p.m. on the 159th orbit and lead to a 2:55 p.m. touchdown.
 
Later landing opportunities result in touchdowns at Edwards Air Force 
Base, Calif., at 4:24 p.m. or 5:56 p.m. CDT.
 
The Monday weather forecast for KSC calls for a chance of thunderstorms 
within 30 miles of the landing strip while it calls for acceptable landing 
weather at Edwards. Should the weather not cooperate today, Discovery 
has landing opportunities at both KSC and Edwards on Tuesday and 
Wednesday. The forecast for the later opportunities is similar to today's 
weather predictions. 
 
Overnight, the Lidar In-Space Technology Experiment wrapped up its 
operations for the mission following a special data take over an erupting 
volcano in New Guinea. Throughout the flight, LITE has emitted around 2 
million laser pulses from the instruments in Discovery's payload bay and 
collected around 45 hours of data.
 
Crew members, who awakened to the song "Yakkety Yak" by the 
Coasters," will begin their final deorbit preparations at about 8:23 a.m. 
CDT.