A chance to see space shuttle Endeavour heading home

Endeavour may finally be ready to head home. The space shuttle, which was rerouted to Edwards Air Force Base on Nov. 30, will be ferried atop a Boeing 747 for its journey to Cape Canaveral, Fla., where it was originally supposed to end its 16-day mission over a week ago.

As of NASA’s latest report yesterday afternoon, the pair — shuttle and plane — will set off on the first leg of their trip at 7 a.m. tomorrow morning, Wednesday, Dec. 10. Edwards AFB itself will not be open to the public to view the takeoff; however, spots surrounding the Antelope Valley base offer a good chance to view the 747-shuttle combo.

Currently, the departure is planned for Edwards’ Runway 04, which points toward the northeast. If that plan holds, would-be spectators are advised to look up from the Boron and north Edwards areas. But don’t be too upset if you’re left looking at nothing.

Depending on winds, the departure point could change — even at the very last minute — to a different runway. “It has before,” said NASA spokesperson Alan Brown in an e-mail.

And the Plan B departure runway points to the southwest, in which case the best viewing areas would be south or west of the base. The aforementioned viewing area and this set are about 35 miles apart, so, according to Brown, a last-minute change would not allow enough time to update public hotlines before takeoff nor give spectators enough time to drive between the two points.

So, the safest gamble is to anticipate them sticking with Plan A. Heading out is a tad risky, sure, but it may just be worth it for an early-morning adventure to the Mojave Desert. And the reward if all goes as planned? You get to see a space shuttle piggy-backing on a 747 in the early morning light. An opportunity like that doesn’t come around often.

[Click on photo immediately above to tour a photo gallery of Endeavour.]

If the place or time of departure changes as soon as later today or by this evening, the Dryden Flight Research Center will update its public information phone line; call (661) 276-3520. Again, though, if the change is last-minute tomorrow morning, the phone line probably won’t be updated before takeoff.

If you’d rather stay warm indoors, watch it on TV, where you will, almost surely, get a really good view.

— Susan Derby, Special to the Los Angeles Times

[Top photo: Space shuttle Endeavour and the Boeing 747 carrier aircraft. Credit: NASA]

[Bottom photo: Endeavour being prepared for its return flight. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 12:51 pm by Susan Derby and is filed under California, Last Minute, Los Angeles, News, Tips & Advice, Space travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.