Beach Flyover On Tap Next Tuesday

Space Coast residents might see a special skyshow next week when Endeavour flies piggyback atop a 747 carrier jet as it returns to Kennedy Space Center from a back-up landing site in California.

Weather permitting, the Boeing aircraft - with Endeavour bolted atop it - would fly over Space Coast beaches between Patrick Air Force Base and KSC late in the morning next Tuesday.

"That's part of the plan," KSC spokesman George Diller said Monday.

The return will cap a planned two-day trip from Edwards Air Force Base, where Endeavour landed Sunday at the end of a mission to outfit the International Space Station for larger crews.

Endeavour and seven astronauts were diverted to the Mojave Desert military base after high crosswinds and approaching storms forced NASA to forego two landing opportunities at KSC.

The weather at KSC on Monday would have been good enough to land here. But the forecast in hand when the decision was made to detour Endeavour called for stiff crosswinds and a chance of low-level clouds that could obscure the KSC runway.

NASA prefers to land shuttles at KSC because it costs about $1.8 million to transport an orbiter from California to Florida.

The shuttle landing Sunday was the 52nd at Edwards, the first there since June 2007 and the third in 11 post-Columbia missions.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge and save the NASA image of shuttle a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and its piggyback passenger Atlantis flying over the Kennedy Space Center before landing on the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility runway in 2007. The SCA is a modified Boeing 747 jetliner. Atlantis was returning from Edwards Air Force Base after landing there at the tail end of the STS-117 mission. Photo credit: NASA/Ken Thornsley.