RSS
Home
Endeavour grounded, but hoping to fly
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Will Wednesday bring good flying weather to space shuttle Endeavour, now at Edwards Air Force Base in California? NASA officials are closely monitoring the cross-country weather, hoping to get Endeavour, flying piggyback atop a 747, enroute to its home port at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.
Endeavour and the STS-126 crew landed at Edwards on Nov. 30 after bad weather nixed a landing at KSC. Although post-landing processing went very well and technical teams were a day ahead of schedule, some short-term hardware problems forced a slowdown.
Since then,it's been nothing but weather, weather, weather. Endeavour, shown above in the mate-demate workstand at Edwards, has to have clear flying weather for its journey home.
If conditions improve, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), with Endeavour on top, would take off at about dawn PST. It's a two-day trip across the country, with an overnight stop somewhere along the line.
I've made that trip, flying in the Pathfinder aircraft for space shuttle Columbia. And it's an adventure like no other.
Image credit: NASA
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
