SHUTTLE MAY LAND AT EDWARDS BAD FLORIDA WEATHER COULD LEAD TO TOUCHDOWN AT AIR FORCE BASE.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE -- For the first time since the Sept.11 attacks, Edwards Air Force Base is planning to open its gates Friday to the public should the Space Shuttle Discovery be diverted to the West Coast.

Discovery's astronauts are scheduled to land on Friday at Cape Canaveral, Fla. However, bad weather threatened Wednesday to complicate things, and an Edwards landing is a possibility.

Low clouds and possible showers were in the forecast at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, and gusty winds were expected at the usual backup landing site, Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The next backup landing site at White Sands, N.M., had the best forecast for Friday, but that is traditionally NASA's last choice. During the only shuttle landing there, in 1982, dust contaminated the orbiter, and the brakes were damaged.

In the event the shuttle lands at Edwards, visitors will be permitted to enter the base and view the landing. The public can enter at either the Rosamond Gate (exit 55A off the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway) or the North Gate (Highway 58).

Anyone 16 or older must show a valid U.S. driver's license to gain access to the installation. Security personnel will check the identification of every person entering the base.

The gates would open at 10a.m. and close 30 minutes before the shuttle's expected arrival.

The shuttle's landing times for Edwards are 2:26p.m., 4:01p.m. or 5:36p.m on Friday.

On Wednesday, Discovery's astronauts swept back and forth across the ship's exterior with remote-controlled cameras searching for any damage that could jeopardize their return to Earth.

Since the Columbia disaster nearly four years ago, such close inspections have become routine, both after liftoff and right before landing.

The Discovery crew used the shuttle's robotic arm and a 50-foot boom to take pictures, which NASA engineers will examine before deciding whether to clear the spaceship for landing.

In 2003, a piece of foam that fell off Columbia's external fuel tank at launch gashed the shuttle's wing, allowing fiery gases to penetrate the spacecraft during its re-entry into the atmosphere. All seven crew members died.

Discovery has enough supplies to remain in space only until Saturday, so landing cannot be delayed for more than a day.

``They're kind of really in a difficult position of deciding where they want to go and when they want to go,'' NASA spokesman George Diller said.