Shuttle headed for Tuesday landing at KSC

Endeavour passed over Hurricane Dean, which is headed for landfall near the Texas/Mexico border.

Shuttle Endeavour will depart the International Space Station on Sunday and aim to land a day early -- on Tuesday -- to avoid any threat from Hurricane Dean.

The first opportunity to land will come at 12:29 p.m. Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center. A second opportunity would come at 2:04 p.m., also at KSC. There also will be opportunities at Edwards Air Force Base in California or Northrup Strip in New Mexico.

Check out the deobit opportunities here: deorbit0818.doc.

Endeavour can generate enough electrical power to remain in space until Thursday and possibly Friday in a worst-case scenario.

NASA, however, is aiming to land on its first opportunity at KSC on Tuesday, and the weather outlook is generally favorable with only a slight chance of rainshowers within 30 nautical miles of the shuttle runway.

The Spaceflight Meteorology Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston presented the outlook to mission managers today. Take a look at the group's Powerpoint presentation here: Landing_Wx.ppt.

Hurricane Dean, now a Category 4 storm and packing winds of 150 mph, is churning through the Caribbean and its projected course indicates the storm could threaten NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston. In that case, NASA could set up an emergency Mission Control Center in one of the Firing Rooms at the Launch Control Center at KSC.

Endeavour's departure from the station is tentatively scheduled for 7:56 a.m. EDT Sunday. We'll have live coverage here in The Flame Trench.