Shuttle landing to be viewable by many in U.S. on Monday morning

Discovery Space Shuttle Takes Scenic Route Before Landing
Orange Streak With Bright White Plasma Trail May Be Visible to Some Across U.S.

By GINA SUNSERI
HOUSTON, April 18, 2010

Heads-up! A spectacular site will be streaking overhead if you are lucky enough to live along the landing path planned for the space shuttle Discovery.

Observers will have a rare opportunity to see and hear the space shuttle as it streaks home from low Earth orbit to the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday morning.

The shuttle will cross North America near Vancouver, British Columbia, then will pass over Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, then Jacksonville Fla., before banking south to the shuttle landing field.

Who will be able to see it? From British Columbia to Tennessee along the landing track, from Tennessee to Florida, there will be too much daylight.

What time will this happen: Discovery will hit British Columbia, Canada, at an altitude of 243,00 feet at about 8:20 ET. It then will cross the U.S. in less than 30 minutes, landing at 8:48 ET.

What will you see? An orange streak with a bright white plasma trail.

What will you hear? A double sonic boom about a minute and a half after the shuttle passes overhead.

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ok, I'm in Kansas City - so I should just go outside at about 7:20 AM with my lawn chair and look North? I've got a good view of the Northern sky from my house. Never seen one of these before but it should be cool (if weather doesn't impede the view or the landing)

If you are a sky watcher, they do email alerts for cool events overhead.

and that was, um, boring.

I assume. Orange glowing meteor in partial daylight with 2 sonic booms? Definitely more interesting than watching a little white dot go from one side of the sky to the other.

From the NASA website ...

Forecasts for Kennedy are not promising, calling for high overcast and two layers of scattered clouds, as well as a chance of showers in the area. If needed, there are landing opportunities at Kennedy and the backup runway at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Tuesday.


The landing is still on for 8:48am KSC time but that could change.


Link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Next attempt to land the shuttle will occur at 10:23am local.

More clouds are moving in with rain chances increasing. :-(

but i'll look for some maps today or news stories to see if we still may see anything.