Endeavour To Make Final Flight Over California Landmarks
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
On Thursday, NASA’s space shuttle Endeavour made its way from Houston, Texas to California. Along the route it passed over several key landmarks and cities, including Tucson, Arizona, saluting Endeavour STS-134 astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, before making its way to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Now, Endeavour and its carrier SCA are preparing for the final flight, scheduled to depart this morning at 8:15 a.m. PDT (11:15 a.m. EDT) from EAFB. The flight was postponed one hour by NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) due to low-level clouds and fog.
NASA TV will air the departure of Endeavour from EAFB beginning at 8 a.m. as it begins its final California flyover.
Once airborne, the SCA and Endeavour will make a final salute to EAFB and DFRC with a low flyover and then continue north to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, visiting sites including Bay Area Discovery Museum, Chabot Space and Science Center, the California State Capitol, Exploratorium, Lawrence Hall of Science and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The duo will then turn south and make a pass over NASA’s Ames Research Center and Vandenberg Air Force Base before heading to Los Angeles.
Any time after 11:30 a.m. PDT the SCA and Endeavour can be seen passing several LA-area landmarks, including the Columbia Memorial Space Center, Disneyland, Griffith Observatory, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Universal Studios, as well as other landmarks.
Endeavour will land about 12:45 p.m. at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
After an arrival ceremony, Endeavour will be unloaded from atop the SCA and docked at a hangar for a few weeks before making the parade route through Inglewood and Los Angeles to its final destination, the California Science Center on October 13.
Weather conditions could still play a factor in the flight times and route, and officials said some flyovers could be either delayed or canceled.
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2012-09-22 03:00:47
Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1112698490/endeavour-final-flight-092112/
