Discovery crew says confident of safe return

HOUSTON, Sunday (Reuters)

Discovery astronauts gave their spacecraft a final inspection on Sunday and said they were confident of a safe return to Earth on the first shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia disaster.

They checked out flight control systems and used a laptop computer to practice landings before Monday's touchdown in Florida.

"Discovery is in absolutely great shape," said shuttle commander Eileen Collins in a media interview from space. "I'm pretty confident about the entry (into the atmosphere) and I'm thinking about the landing."

"I have had a lot of thoughts about Columbia and I will have thoughts after the landing, but we're all going to be very focused tomorrow on the job at hand," she said.

After 13 days in orbit, Discovery was scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast at 4:47 a.m. (0847 GMT) on Monday.

Weather forecasts indicated favorable conditions for landing, said NASA entry flight director LeRoy Cain on Sunday. If problems with the landing arise, he said Discovery could be waved off to an alternate landing site in California or New Mexico on Tuesday but must land somewhere by Wednesday.