Fla.’s Bad Weather Sends Shuttle Arrival To Calif.
By MARCIA DUNN
AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – Dangerously high wind and a stormy sky prevented space shuttle Endeavour from returning to its home base in Florida on Sunday, and NASA ordered the astronauts to take a detour and land in sunny California.
With a gloomy Florida forecast for Monday as well, Mission Control opted to send Endeavour to Edwards Air Force Base, the backup landing site. Touchdown was scheduled for 4:25 p.m. EST.
“It is what it is,” shuttle commander Christopher Ferguson radioed. “We’ll see you on the ground in California.”
Endeavour and its crew are wrapping up a 16-day trip that left the international space station freshly remodeled and capable of housing bigger crews.
Returning home is former space station resident Gregory Chamitoff, who’s been off the planet since the end of May.
NASA always prefers to land the space shuttles at its home base in Florida.
It takes about a week and costs $1.8 million to transport a shuttle from California to Florida, atop a modified jumbo jet.
The astronauts also were rooting for a Florida touchdown; that’s where their families were waiting.
But the crosswind at the Florida landing strip was too strong, and thunderstorms were moving in.
Monday’s outlook was just as dismal; NASA officials said over the weekend that it would make no sense to keep Endeavour in orbit an extra day if the weather wasn’t expected to improve in Florida.
No space shuttle has landed at Edwards since last year.
Ferguson will have to bring Endeavour down on a temporary runway that’s shorter and more narrow than the Kennedy landing strip.
Edwards’ main runway – which parallels the temporary one – just underwent maintenance and upgrades, and has yet to be equipped with all the necessary navigation equipment.
NASA officials weren’t concerned, saying both Ferguson and his co-pilot, Eric Boe, practiced on the temporary runway in training aircraft.
Flight surgeons were standing by at Edwards. Chamitoff, in particular, was expected to need assistance at touchdown; he has not experienced gravity for six months.
Endeavour blasted into orbit Nov. 14, carrying up all kinds of home improvement equipment for the space station.
It dropped off a new bathroom, kitchenette, exercise machine, two sleeping quarters and a recycling system designed to convert astronauts’ urine and sweat into drinking water.
The additions – and a few more scheduled to go up on the next shuttle flight in February – should enable NASA to double the size of the space station crew by June.
Endeavour’s astronauts helped install the recycling machine and had to put in extra effort to get the urine processor working.
About seven liters of recycled urine and condensation were coming back aboard Endeavour for extensive testing.
No one at the space station will drink the recycled water until the equipment runs for 90 days and ground tests ensure it’s safe.
More samples will be returned on the next shuttle flight.
The shuttle crew also conducted four spacewalks to clear metals shavings from a solar wing rotary joint at the space station.
The joint had been jammed for more than a year and hampered energy production at the orbiting outpost.
Initial tests indicated the repairs on the joint were successful.
Overshadowing the clean and lube job, however, was the loss of a $100,000 tool bag.
Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper let go of the bag during the first spacewalk, and it floated away.
Almost immediately after Endeavour’s crew was instructed to keep circling Earth, Mission Control relayed news of the delayed homecoming to the three space station residents.
Commander Mike Fincke asked to be kept abreast of everything.
Early Sunday morning, a Russian supply ship arrived at the space station with Christmas presents, food, clothes and other items.
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On the Net:
NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
