Shuttle Atlantis set to return home Thursday morning

The six STS-115 astronauts are scheduled to end their orbital construction mission today with a landing at 6:21 a.m. EDT at Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The crew will prepare for re-entry and landing this morning. The payload bay doors are scheduled to close at 2:44 a.m.

Commander Brent Jett and Pilot Chris Ferguson are slated to fire the shuttle’s engines at 5:14 a.m. to begin the descent to Florida. If flight controllers decide to delay landing, a second opportunity is available today. It would begin with a de-orbit burn at 6:51 a.m. and end with a 7:57 a.m. landing.

Forecasts call for acceptable landing weather in Florida.

The STS-115 crew members have been in orbit since Sept. 9. They resumed the construction of the International Space Station with the delivery of the P3/P4 integrated truss segment. They conducted successful spacewalks primarily devoted to preparing the truss and its solar arrays for operation.