Shuttle set to land at Edwards base in California

[jaredfogle]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4133680.stm

It's expected to land at 0812 EDT. Wake up, you lazy fools.


As I write this, a poll is being taken at mission control for the final go/no-go decision.

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/laun ... -vlcc.html

[jaredfogle]

And it's a go.

[Rand Linden]

Dammit.

That means that in roughly 90 minutes most of Los Angeles will hear a sonic boom loud enough to shake the entire house.

Ugh.

Rand.

[jaredfogle]

You lucky fool.

[Rand Linden]

Lucky?

Not really -- there's nothing to actually see, unfortunately.

The experience can be pretty much summed up thus: a *really* loud hollow-sounding bang, along with slight movement of the ground, followed by the cacophany of endless car alarms, sirens, notices on all TV channels that it was NOT an earthquake, etc.

Of course, that assumes that all goes well with the landing -- which is certainly a good thing.

Rand.

[jaredfogle]

Sounds like fun to me.

[Rand Linden]

Sounds like fun to me.

You need to get out more

Rand.

edit: sonic boom was at 5:06am -- congrats to the crew et al on a safe landing.

[arrowhead]

I was disappointed that I stayed up for the sonic boom. I barely heard anything, and felt absolutely nothing. I am glad everything went well, and the landing was perfect.

[armada]

Discovery Lands Safely in California



9 August 2005, 8:12 a.m. EDT



Space shuttle Discovery has safely landed at Edwards AFB, California, ending NASA's Return-to Flight mission to the International Space Station.



Discovery touched down at 8:12 a.m. EDT (1212 GMT) at the back-up landing site in California's Mojave Desert, where weather conditions were perfect for the vehicle's return.



Commander Eileen Collins and pilot Jim Kelly guided the Orbiter on its fiery plunge through the atmosphere and hour-long free-fall descent back to Earth, then precisely executed a series of turns and banking maneuvers that slowed the vehicle for its powerless landing on the 3-mile long concrete runway 22 on Rogers Dry Lake in the high desert of California's Antelope Valley.



Discovery was diverted to the West Coast alternate landing site when continued instability in the Florida weather ? rain showers and thunderstorms within 30 nautical miles of the Shuttle Landing Facility - forced NASA to wave-off both of today's possible landing opportunities at the Kennedy Space Center.



STS-114 marks the 50th space shuttle mission to land at the California landing site.



The Orbiter will now be ferried back to the Kennedy Space Center on the back of a specially-modified 747 airliner, a procedure that takes about a week at a cost of $1 million.

[Hawq]

Watch it land over at the BBC

[Prophet][]

Every channel here showed it live, which I thought was weird but then I remembered their is a guy from Adelaide on the flight.