Live at KSC: Shuttle Heads For West Coast

Facing a windy weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center Monday, NASA is opting to send shuttle Endeavour and seven astronauts to Edwards Air Force Base in California late this afternoon.

Touchdown on a back-up runway at the Mojave Desert military base should come at 4:25 p.m. EST. A deorbit burn is slated to take place at 3:19 p.m. EST.

Sunny skies and light winds will greet the returning crew, which is winding up a mission to the International Space Station.

Landing will be on Runway 4 rather than Runway 22, the main concrete landing strip at Edwards, which recently underwent modifications. NASA has yet to switch landing aides and other equipment back to Runway 22, so the 12,000-foot runway that runs parallel to it will be used.

The landing will come on Orbit 250 of the STS-126 "Extreme Home Improvement mission, a flight devoted to outfitting the International Space Station for larger crews.

Click to enlarge and save the long-range, mid-range and close-range ground tracks for landing:







Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney decided to divert Endeavour to Edwards after looking at the forecast for weather at KSC on Monday. It calls for sustained winds of 14 knots with gusts up to 21 knots, and there is a slight chance of broken clouds at 5,000 feet.

"Based on the forecast at KSC tomorrow -- the winds are forecast to be similar to what they are today, a 'no-go' forecast, in addition to some upper-level winds concerns -- we're going to elect to press ahead with the Edwards opportunity today," NASA astronaut Alan Poindexter told the crew from NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston.

"We understand," said Endeavour mission commander Chris Ferguson. "And again, we know you folks have been working this real hard...but it is what it is."

NASA prefers to land shuttles at KSC because it costs $1.8 million to fly a shuttle orbiter back to Florida from California atop a modified 747 jet. It also takes at least a week to get the shuttle prepared for what typically is a planned two-day trip back to KSC. That is time an orbiter otherwise could be processed for its next flight.

You can check out this cool interactive graphic of a shuttle landing here: Shuttle Landing

And here's another showing how the shuttle will be brought back to KSC from California: Shuttle Piggyback.

Both are by Florida Today graphic artist Dennis Lowe.