minutes ago talked to the flow director stephanie stillson. been in charge of getting discovery ready for the last ten years. he s all ek sixcited. 15 bus loads of people, nasa workers, family members, charlie bolden here as well. we just heard the two sonic booms. coming in for the last time. let s listen in to nasa. they stopped speaking for a moment. i want to go to you, clay. you know what it s like to be aboard that shuttle right now. what s going on through their heads, through their hearts as they prepare to land? well, they re all very focused right now. you know, steve is getting ready to land the shuttle, and we re counting on him. you know, the shuttle has no capability to do a go around. so it s a one-shot deal.
they are going to have another weather briefing in 45 minutes to figure this all out and make sure the winds are within the limits, but it looks real good right now. right now, as we re watching the clock 9:25, discovery is entering its last-ever orbit of the earth. this is the final time it will go around the earth before they start that deorbit burn. it s a real, real difficult time here for the people at the kennedy space center saying good-bye to these vehicles. we talked just the other day to stephanie stillson. she is discovery s flow director which means for the past decade, her responsibility has been to get shuttle as ready for every one of their launches, discovery s in particular. she says this is a particularly tough time for her. the absolute hardest part, i think you get the same answer no matter who you asked, is the fact that that that we re having to lose people. people are leaving, people are being laid off. you re coming to the end of a