Discovery Ferry Flight Home Begins Soon

The cross country ferry flight of the space shuttle Discovery atop a 747 jumbo jet is scheduled to begin in one hour from southern California, as teams begin boarding and receive their final weather checks before departure.

Discovery, bolted down a top a modified Boeing 747-200 jet, is now scheduled to depart Edwards Air Force Base to begin a nearly 2,500 mile journey to her home here at the Kennedy Space Center at 9:30 am EDT this morning.

After flying over Arizona and New Mexico at an altitude of 15,000 feet, it is scheduled to make the first of two stops today at 12:13 pm EDT, as the aeronautical duo lands at the Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas to refuel, perform a weather update east of north Texas and let the crew eat.

If the weather in Louisiana looks favorable, then the 747-combo will be wheels up about two hours later and possibly aim for Barksdale Air Force Base outside Shreveport for an overnight stay.

On Monday, the jumbo jet with its prized cargo riding a top, will depart northern Louisiana at sunrise and aim for a return to America's Space Coast at just before Noon with a traditional low fly over of the beaches from New Smyrna south to Cocoa Beach - including the KSC Industrial area.

SpaceLaunchNews.com will have LIVE updates and television coverage of the flight, including Twitter updates (@spacelaunchnews).

Discovery May Depart California on Friday

The space shuttle Discovery could depart it's California landing site on Friday after being mated a top a 747 jet for its return to her home at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Discovery, which landed at Edwards, AFB in the south California desert on Friday evening, is being prepared for lifting and her mount a top a modified Boeing 747 jet later this week. Currently, officials at the Dryden Flight Research Center near Edwards state that the duel crafts could depart as early as this Friday morning for the two day trip back to Cape Canaveral.

Several turnaround technicians from Kennedy flew out to Dryden on Saturday and began work to safe and drain toxic fluids from the orbiter. They will begin lifting the 25-year-old space shuttle and begin stowing her landing gear.

Weather could force a one day delay in Discovery's departure and several at Dryden think that a Saturday morning departure is most likely to happen. They feel it will give the turnaround team more time to secure and bolt the orbiter down on the jumbo jet.

Discovery concluded a nearly 14 days space station resupply flight with a landing her due to bad weather along America's Space Coast. Friday's landing was only the third forced Edwards landing in the last ten months due to bad weather in Florida.

VIDEO: Discovery's Sunset Landing in California

Discovery lands in California tonight after nearly 14 days in space.

Atlantis a top 747 Begins Trek Home to KSC

Under beautiful skies, the Boeing 747 aircraft with the space shuttle Atlantis bolted a top took off from the California desert en route to an over night stay at Fort Bliss in western Texas.

The huge airliner was wheels up this morning at 11:07 am EDT, following take off from Edwards, AFB and the Dryden Flight Research Center in southern California.

The aeronautical duo then flew for two hours at an altitude between 15,000 and 15,200 feet through clear skies to land at Fort Bliss near El Paso, Texas, at 1:06 pm EDT.

Atlantis to Depart California this Morning

The Boeing 747 carrying the space shuttle Atlantis a top are set to depart the California desert for the Kennedy Space Center late this morning.

The ferry flight departure from Edwards AFB in southern California is currently planned for 11AM EDT, and should last two days. The pair were to have left earlier, however technicians "encountered some difficulties while trying to tighten a bolt on the right attach point for connecting Atlantis to its modified Boeing 747 aircraft", NASA stated this morning.

An overnight stay tonight will be based on weather conditions, but a Texas lay over is very likely.

Atlantis landed on May 24th following 13 days in space, due to bad weather along the Florida space coast.

NASA HD Images: Atlantis Lands Today!

Atlantis flew into southern California this morning after being told that Florida's weather was too unstable to land at the Kennedy Space Center. Atlantis touched down at Edwards, AFB at 10:39:05 am EDT, or 7:39 am Pacific.

Blue skies and light wind greeted the crew of seven aboard Atlantis as they steered the orbiter toward the conclusion of her 30th voyage into space. Be sure to click on the images for a larger view.

Atlantis Touches down in Sunny California

After thirteen days in earth orbit, the space shuttle Atlantis fired her jets and returned home to America with a desert runway landing at sunny Edwards, AFB in California this morning.

Continuing rain bands flowing up the Space Coast caused Mission Control to reroute the mission from a landing here at the Kennedy Space Center to a beautiful blue sky Edwards landing.

Coming home following a very successful flight to service and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, Atlantis fired two thruster engines at 10:24 am EDT today to brake her speed by 305 mph, and begin to drop her out of her elliptical orbit of 220 x 350 statue miles.

The orbiter blazed a path and cut though earth's atmosphere over the eastern Pacific Ocean. The orbiter flew north of Hawaii and eastward toward southern California on the tail end of the mission's 197th orbit of earth.

As the newly risen Sun shone brightly on the orbiter's white skin of thermal blankets and tiles, Atlantis' commander Scott Altman pitched her nose up, and pilot Greg Johnson dropped the landing gear as they flew toward the thresh hold of runway 22.

"Ten feet. Five feet. One foot... Touchdown!" pilot Johnson radioed to his commander as the main gear hit the desert runway at 220 mph at 11:39:05 am EDT. Seconds later, a drogue chute ejected from the aft section of Atlantis, and the nose gear lowered as her speed began to drop below 200 mph. Atlantis came to a complete stop at 11:40:15 am.

"At last! I didn't realize it was going to be so hard to get back to the Earth, landing here just felt great to everybody," stated Altman after landing. "We're all thrilled to have the mission complete and it was a testament to the teamwork and cooperation of folks all across the country."

Atlantis had completed her 30th flight and a successful Hubble servicing mission which lasted 12 days, 21 hours 37 minutes and 9 seconds, and traveled 5,276,000 million miles. It was also the 56th space shuttle flight to conclude with an Edwards landing dating back to April 1981.

Along with Altman and Johnson were Mission Specialists Michael Good, K. Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Andrew Feustel and Mike Massimino.

Atlantis began her latest flight on May 11th.

Atlantis coming Home to Edwards, AFB Today

Mission Control radioed the crew of Atlantis at 10:01 am EDT, that Kennedy remains no-go due to weather, and thus they will land on their current orbit of 197 at Edwards, AFB in California.

The deorbit burn will ignite at 10:24 am EDT, causing Atlantis to fall out of their orbit for a planned landing on the California desert at 11:39 am.

This will be the 53rd Edwards landing by a space shuttle since the program began in 1981.

Atlantis to Try a KSC Landing on Sunday

Rains and low clouds at the Kennedy Space Center has caused Entry Flight Director Norm Knight in Mission Control to wave off a Florida landing today by shuttle Atlantis in favor of a Sunday touchdown.

Having donned their orange entry suits and closed the payload bay doors, the seven member crew of Atlantis waited patiently for an entire orbit as the control center assessed the dynamic weather conditions around the Space Coast. NASA simply wanted to keep Kennedy open and at the last possible minute elected to give the crew another day in space.

Edwards weather, meanwhile, had been favorable for today. Astronaut Chris Ferguson is flying a shuttle trainer aircraft at Edwards, AFB and reporting back to Houston's Mission Control his weather findings.

Landing is now targeted for the first KSC attempt at 10:11 am EDT tomorrow.

Stay tuned this Memorial Day Weekend for mobile updates to your device via Twitter @spacelaunchnews.

Endeavour departs Edwards, AFB for Florida

Endeavour is finally enroute back to her home in Florida after departing Edwards, AFB in Californina late this morning.

Riding atop the shuttle carrier aircraft, or a Boeing 747 modified to piggyback an orbiter, the duo where wheels up at 10:03 am EST today or 7:03 am PST, to begin the two day flight across the United States.

Watching it via NASA-TV [located at top, right column] we enjoyed a beautiful surise departure from Edwards and the Dryden Flight Research Center, where Endeavour had returned from her 15-day space station flight on Nov. 30th.


The 747 /Endeavour duo will likly spend the night tonight near Ft. Worth, Texas, and depart late morning tomorrow pending a weather front over the lower southeastern states.

Endeavour to Return to KSC on Tuesday

Endeavour in mate/demate on Dec. 5 (LA Times)

The space shuttle Endeavour will remain in California until Monday morning as she is prepared for her cross country flight which will end here at the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier, we had reported that KSC engineers at Edwards, AFB in California were ahead of the timeline in preparing the orbiter for her return. However, an issue with the aerodynamic tail cone attachment on Friday will keep the shuttle's return on the normal timeline of a Monday departure.

According to the offices at Edwards and the Dryden Flight Research Center, three of the eight custom made pins which are used to bolt the tail cone over the orbiter's main engines were too large. Technicians then went to work on Friday to reduce the size of those three pins which were only a micro size to big.

Later today, crews will attach the tail cone and begin hoisting the orbiter to prepare for mating to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft - a modified Boeing 747.

Endeavour landed at Edwards on Nov. 30th, following her NASA-touted home improvement mission to the international space station.