BY JUSTIN RAY
Follow the preparations to return America's space shuttle fleet to flight as we chronicle work to ready Discovery for its mid-May blastoff to the international space station.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2005
Space shuttle Discovery remains parked inside its Kennedy Space Center hangar while technicians make repairs to internal wiring and adjust the vital thermal seals on landing gear doors. The ship's long-awaited quarter-mile move from the hangar to the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building has been delayed a couple of times this month, most recently a five-day slip announced today. NASA says the so-called "rollover" transfer to the VAB is now targeted for either Easter Sunday, March 27, or Monday, March 28. Once inside the VAB, Discovery will be hoisted vertically and mated to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters atop a mobile launching platform. The completed stack will roll to launch pad 39B about a week later, on April 3 or 4. "The rollover milestone is moving to March 27 (previously March 22), due to additional work needed on wiring in the payload bay and on the main and nose landing gear doors," the space agency said today. "Because work is scheduled to end late that day, rollover could take place the morning of March 28. If the work is completed safely and correctly, the orbiter could be moved to the VAB earlier than March 27." The wiring trouble stems from problems found aboard sister-ship Endeavour, which is in the midst of a major overhaul period. "On orbiter Endeavour, wiring was found in a cable tray in the payload bay that showed the fasteners were causing minor chafing on the tubing surrounding the wires. Boroscope inspections of wire trays on Discovery are complete, and some wires will require additional work. The wire tray covers will be removed and chafe protection will be added." Meanwhile, efforts to install seals and perform checks on the landing gear doors on Discovery's belly are almost finished, NASA says. The doors will be closed for flight while Discovery is still inside the hangar, and remain shut until seconds before landing. The seals are critical because they protect the vehicle from the super-hot temperatures during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. In the Space Station Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module Raffaello that will launch aboard Discovery is being filled with equipment. Workers have stowed racks containing supplies for the outpost. Additional bags loaded with cargo will be stuffed into Raffaello over the next couple of weeks before the module's outer hatch is closed in mid-April. Raffaello then moves to the launch pad for mounting into Discovery's payload bay for the ride to orbit. Discovery remains scheduled for launch around 3:50 p.m. EDT (1950 GMT) on May 15. The available launch period to ensure a daytime liftoff and separation of its external fuel tank extends through June 3. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2005
The shutdown of an orientation control gyroscope aboard the international space station will not impact the planned launch of the shuttle Discovery in May, officials said Thursday, even though only two of the lab's four gyros will be operating when the orbiter arrives. Read our full story. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2005
A circuit breaker aboard the international space station popped open early Wednesday, interrupting power to one of the three operational gyroscopes used to maintain the lab's orientation in space. NASA officials said the failure would have no immediate impact and that the space station's orientation could be maintained with just two gyros while engineers study the problem. Read our full story. See our STS-114 Mission Index for previous stories.
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Die Discovery bei der Landung
 Die US-Raumfähre Discovery ist sicher um 14:11 Uhr MESZ auf der Edwards Air Force Base in Kalifornien gelandet. Es war die fünfzigste Landung in der Mojave-Wüste. Das letzte Mal endete dort die Mission STS-111 im Juni 2002. Außerdem ist es die erste Nachtlandung seit der STS-48 im September 1991 und die sechste überhaupt im Spaceshuttle-Programm.

Die ersten beiden Zeitfenster für den heutigen Landeversuch der Discovery sind ungenutzt geblieben. Die Raumfähre sollte dabei entweder um 11:07 Uhr oder um 12:43 Uhr MESZ im Kennedy Space Center landen, doch die Wetterbedingungen ließen das erneut nicht zu.

Da der Spaceshuttle in Kalifornien gelandet ist, muss er nun Huckepack auf einem Flugzeug des Typs Boeing 747 nach Cape Canaveral (Florida) gebracht werden. Dieser Transport kostet die NASA fünf Millionen US-Dollar. Darüber hinaus könnte sich der Start der Atlantis am 22. September verzögern, da die Discovery in Florida vorher noch nach Schäden untersucht werden soll, um dann als Ersatzshuttle zur Verfügung zu stehen.

Für die NASA waren die Verzögerungen Routine, voller Zuversicht rechnete die Kommandantin Eileen M. Collins mit gutem Wetter für eine sichere Landung, womit sie Recht behalten sollte.