Managers plan to begin Discovery's ferry flight sunday

[Henk Voortwijs]

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:00:04 -0500

Shuttle managers plan to begin the cross-country ferry flight trip for Discovery on its modified 747 aircraft Sunday morning, shortly before sunrise at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Managers met with the air crew and weather team at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center this afternoon. They discussed the weather forecast for the next several days and formulated a tentative plan for the route and refueling stops along the way back to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Weather permitting, the plan is to have Discovery leave Edwards at about 9:20 a.m. EDT Sunday. The flight's "pathfinder" support aircraft will depart about 20 minutes earlier. The 747 and pathfinder then will head to the first refueling stop at Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas.
Depending on the weather, the teams plan one additional stop before ending their travel day at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana tomorrow afternoon.
Managers expect to be able to reach Kennedy from Barksdale on Monday without any additional stops.‬‪‪
The low pressure weather system that forecasters have been monitoring for the last several days is expected to begin moving to the northeast and that would allow the ferry flight to reach Barksdale tomorrow.
Shuttle teams finished preparations overnight for the 2,500 mile flight, including fully attaching Discovery to the top of the 747, known as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and moving the piggybacked pair into position to be ready for tomorrow's departure.
The teams will have an additional weather briefing Sunday at 7 a.m. EDT before their 9:20 a.m. expected departure from Edwards.

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[Henk Voortwijs]

Weather Challenges Ferry Flight
Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:23:41 -0500

Shuttle Discovery's ferry flight team plans to depart Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana within the hour and head to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today. But weather is going to present challenges.

The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with shuttle Discovery on top and NASA's C-9 "pathfinder" support aircraft will have to navigate through a line of showers across Louisiana. In addition, there are storms currently around Kennedy. The team will have to make real-time decisions and see whether those storms break up and Discovery can touch down at the Shuttle Landing Facility once the 747 and pathfinder aircraft near Florida's east coast.

If not, the ferry flight team plans to divert to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida to refuel and temporarily wait for a break in the weather. The exact timing of a possible landing at Kennedy today isn't known now because it will be based on weather conditions in flight.

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[Henk Voortwijs]

747 Carrying Discovery Lands at Kennedy
Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:10:48 PM GMT+0200

Discovery, riding atop a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at 12:05 p.m. EDT, ending the two-day, 2,500-mile ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

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