California, where the weather outlook is better.....

Couldn't ask for a better day today... ocean is like glass... great for fishing!

Latest updates:

"The weather forecast is "no go" today for the first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The next Kennedy landing opportunity is with a deorbit burn of 1:49 p.m. EST and landing at 2:54 p.m. The weather forecast is not looking favorable for this second attempt."

"Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney waved off space shuttle Endeavour's second Florida landing opportunitiy. The STS-126 crew still has two landing opportunities today at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 4:25 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mission Control Center in Houston is also looking at potential landing opportunities for Monday at Kennedy Space Center."

Going to Edwards, landing 4:25 EST. Should be interesting... Edwards is on a secondary (and shorter) runway right now, so it looks like they'll have to lay on the brakes once they touch down.

Godspeed!

Lawnchair

Going to Edwards, landing 4:25 EST. Should be interesting... Edwards is on a secondary (and shorter) runway right now, so it looks like they'll have to lay on the brakes once they touch down.

Godspeed!

Cool! Wish I was going with you.

I just now heard on the news about the 4:25 p.m. landing at Edwards.
That makes it 1:25 p.m. here in California.

Get ready Californians to hear the sonic ((((BOOM)))!

Do you or anyone else know how many minutes it is (prior to the 1:25 p.m. landing at Edwards) the shuttle breaks the sound barrier and we'll hear the sonic boom? Or is it simultaneous? (I never claimed to be a space techie. lol)

SHUTTLE IS LANDING!

Just got the sonic boom at 1:21 p.m. here in Burbank, CA

The sonic boom is of very short duration and doesn't actually make a "boom" noise but does make the house rattle. Any Californian who didn't know to expect it, might have thought it was the beginning of an earthquake.

USA!!! The greatest on Earth! Way to go, guys!

Except for the floating tool bag....

20,000 years from now, some space traveler will desperately need a 5/8" wrench and a screwdriver. Magically, a tool bag will bump into him.

It is such a relief when there is a safe completion of another mission.

Dang, someday they have got to figure out a way to clean up all the trash in orbit. I believe there is still a ham sandwich out there, along with huge amounts of other stuff. That tool bag is going to be a problem. They should have had a way to dart it and reel it back in (although I have read about how you can't eyeball a docking maneuver, but maybe you could hook something that was close).

I was surfing Cocoa Beach and saw two shuttles flown in on747's one day. A rocket launch later that week. Soooo coool!

"Do you or anyone else know how many minutes it is (prior to the 1:25 p.m. landing at Edwards) the shuttle breaks the sound barrier and we'll hear the sonic boom?"

The boom isn't because it is breaking a barrier...it is because it is already moving faster than sound and the shockwave from it's passing has intersected with your location on the ground.

Once the velocity falls below sonic speeds, no sonic boom.

Glad to see they made it back to terra firma safe and sound.

I'm going to miss the Space Shuttles once they retire them. The Ares rocket that is slated to become the new orbital delivery vehicle isn't anywhere near as cool. The rocket (and the Orion spacecraft itself, for that matter) remind me too much of the 60s era spacecraft.

DCinMA

The boom isn't because it is breaking a barrier...it is because it is already moving faster than sound and the shockwave from it's passing has intersected with your location on the ground.

Once the velocity falls below sonic speeds, no sonic boom.

Appreciated your answer to my #4. Thanks to you I now know my house rattled and shook yesterday due to the shuttle's shockwave when it passed overhead, not because it broke the sound barrier.

Would you happen to know at what mach speed the shuttle would have been traveling overhead my house when it came in for the landing yesterday? I think you travel at a mach speed when you break the sound barrier, right? If so, I was wondering if the shuttle comes in for a landing at mach 1, or mach 2, or whatever.