Posted: Fri, Mar 16, 2001, 6:42 AM ET (1142 GMT)
NASA announced late Thursday that the space shuttle Discovery will remain docked to the International Space Station an extra day to give crews additional time to pack items for the trip back to Earth. Under the new mission plan, Discovery will undock from the station late Sunday night after removing the Leonardo cargo module from the station and returning it to the shuttle's cargo bay. The shuttle's landing time has also been pushed back a day, to approximately 2 am EST (0700 GMT) Wednesday, March 21. The extra time was added to the shuttle's stay at ISS to give shuttle and station crews additional time to pack Leonardo with approximately 725 kg of equipment and trash that are to be returned to Earth, after the crew and controllers found that proper packing of the module was taking much more time than anticipated.

Related Links:

•  STS-102 status report #16
•  Spaceflight Now mission status center
•  Florida Today mission journal