7AM UPDATE: No go for us. Clouds are causing a change in landing plans for the Shuttle, and it will not be flying over our area.
You may be able to see space shuttle Discovery coming in for a landing this morning, depending on clouds in central Indiana. We are overcast at 20,000 feet early this morning, and there will be mid and high level clouds all day long.
Here’s a link to show you where the Shuttle is right now. The window for seeing the shuttle in Indy would be 7:16-7:22. Start looking North/Northwest at the horizon – it’ll be about 550 miles out. At it’s closest to Indy, it’ll be about 40 miles out and to the northeast about “halfway up” in the sky. From there, it’ll track southeast.
Discovery will zoom over Vancouver Island and southern Alberta, down over the northern border of Montana and North Dakota, Minnesota near Minneapolis and St. Paul, then Chicago and Indianapolis, eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee, the western side of the Carolinas, eastern Georgia and, finally, out over the Atlantic into Cape Canaveral for a 7:34 a.m. scheduled landing. The shuttle will appear as a streaking, glowing trail.
The last time a returning shuttle flew over so much of the United States was in 2007. No further re-entries like this are planned as the shuttle program draws to a close. NASA has tried to keep continental flyovers to a minimum for public safety reasons, ever since space shuttle Columbia shattered over Texas in 2003.
Discovery had been scheduled to land on Monday, but rain and overcast skies prevented the from returning to Earth.
Clearer skies are expected over Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. If the clouds linger, however, NASA will try for the backup landing site in Southern California.
Typically, a shuttle returns from the southwest, zooming up over the South Pacific, Central America, and the Gulf of Mexico. NASA changed Discovery’s flight path before liftoff on April 5, to maximize the crew’s work time in orbit and reduce fatigue.
A touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base in California would eliminate an expansive flyover. Instead, the shuttle would come in from the north and head down the West Coast.
The volcanic eruption in Iceland, at least, was not interfering with NASA’s effort to bring Discovery home. The re-entry path does not go anywhere near the European airspace threatened by volcanic ash.
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