Due to the disturbed weather today and which is not expected to improve tomorrow, it was decided to land the ferry in California. The ignition of the engines is expected at 22:19 and the landing - at 23:25 Israel time.
Update: 21:00 due to the disturbed weather today and which is not expected to improve tomorrow, it was decided to land the ferry in California. The ignition of the engines is expected at 22:19 and the landing - at 23:45 Israel time.
Update 18:00: Winds, rain and thunderstorms caused NASA to delay the landing of Endeavor until at least 21:54
NASA decided to give up the landing opportunity at 20:19 at the Kennedy Space Center and go for the second opportunity - 21:54. If this option also does not come to fruition due to weather conditions, there are two landing opportunities in California, until 01:00
The space shuttle's landing manager on behalf of the control center, Brian Looney, announced that the American space agency, NASA, decided to abandon the first landing opportunity planned for 20:19 p.m. Israel time and to perform the landing in the second landing window at the Kennedy Space Center, at 21:54 p.m. In this case, starting the engines for entering the atmosphere should be done at 20:50 Israel time.
The Space Shuttle Endeavor had two launch opportunities open today at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida - one at 13:19 EST (20:19 Israel time) and the other at 14:54 (21:54 Israel time). The shuttle is returning from mission STS-126 where its astronauts were busy renovating the space station and preparing it to receive a double number of crew members from next year.
However, the weather forecasters are predicting rain and possibly even thunderstorms and strong winds at the landing site, which could prevent the landing, where the shuttle actually glides from space without engines and with almost no maneuverability, therefore it is unable to land in conditions that do not interfere with normal passenger planes.
The NASA website reports that the shuttle has two opportunities to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California later (16:25 and 18:00 EST - 23:25 and 01:00 Israel time respectively). At this point there is no talk of postponing the landing by another day.
Mission STS-126 was the 124th shuttle mission since the beginning of the space shuttle era, and the 27th flight to the International Space Station.
