Here’s a look at the flyover schedule for today and on the way to LA (note that times are local NOT EDT):
The flight path will take the aircraft to the northwest, across the Florida panhandle and toward Houston after low-level passes over Stennis in southwest Mississippi at around 8:15 a.m. CDT and Michoud east of New Orleans at about 8:25 a.m. CDT.
Arriving in the Houston area at approximately 9 a.m. CDT, the SCA crew will initiate a 1,500 flyover of various areas of the city, including downtown, before heading to the Clear Lake area. The SCA and Endeavour are predicted to land at Ellington Field at about 10:45 a.m. CDT. Public viewing has been extended to 9 p.m. CDT, since the aircraft will remain in Houston for one night rather than two.
The SCA/Endeavour will depart at dawn on Thursday and make a fueling stop at Biggs Army Air Field in El Paso before proceeding to Dryden Flight Research Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, California. On Friday it will depart Dryden for a flyover of northern California and areas of the Los Angeles basin before landing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) between 11 a.m. and noon PDT. In October, Endeavour will move to the California Science Center to begin a new mission inspiring future explorers.
Some of the LA teams are right by LAX, here is looking at you 207,294,330,1197,1759 etc… I personally work fairly close and plan to “try” to get a good view of when it lands. There is a street that the flight path crosses which would be an amazing viewing place. Knowing my luck the street is likely to be closed… I could imagine a ton of cars just stopping there backing up traffic… Though I do know some people who work on the high rises that overlook the runway who will be watching!
Went out on the Parking Garage roof this morning in Houston. What a sight. I was impressed with how low they flew over the city.
Too bad I have to work would love to have went to Elington Field to se it up close.
:mad:
Got up at 5am this morning to drive to the Cocoa Beach Pier to give a farewell to Endeavour. I decided I got fantastic pictures from the Discovery flyby, and this time I just wanted to enjoy the memory without worry of my camera, but wow, this time instead of just flying along the coast over the ocean, it went right over head!
I have good memories of this obiter, my favorite being the night launch the Saturday after the Florida Regional 2008. I was able to share the experience with a couple good FIRST buddies from out of state, and took some other amazing photos.
My next favorite memory was a year earlier. I was privledged to witness this shuttle roll out of the Vehicle Assembly Building in July of 2007, for the first time after the Colombia disaster.
Students… Please go get inspired. I want to keep exploring.
I hadn’t heard about this… until I saw it happening! I glanced over at the TV in our cafeteria at school, and saw a shuttle landing. It was quite a surprise, and it’s great to hear the whole story behind was was going on.
I then had an immediate nightmare-daydream (daymare?) of 118’s robot flying. :ahh:
Anyone have any specific details on the SoCal flight plan or timing, particularly with respect to the JPL flyover? Any idea what direction it will be heading at least?
If there are any FIRSTers in Tucson, the shuttle/747 will be flying over the city around noon local time. Mark Kelly made the request so that Gabrielle Giffords could see it for herself one more time. I know I’ll definitely try to catch the show!
Man Im jealous. Not of the injured toes but of being that close to it
We are situated right between Stennis and Michoud (and many of mentors come from both sites) so the Shuttle went right over us. I was sitting in physics when we heard a loud, whooshing noise to which the teacher remarked something along the lines of “Oh, there’s the shuttle”. Unfortunately it was the kind of thing that by the time we could have gotten outside, it would have already been gone…
People have done a lot of ridiculous things with the 747, but the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) is probably the coolest variant. It’s too bad no one had the space to leave one of the Shuttles (perhaps the Enterprise?) mounted on one of the carriers. Instead of retiring to a nice air conditioned museum they’ll be roughing it out in the desert…
I’m happy to be at USC - it’s literally coming to rest right across the street from me! While I won’t really see any flyovers, I’ll get to see it being transported to the Science Center right outside my window!
I live ~3 miles from LAX, and you can bet anything that I’ll be there personally on Friday. I’ll try and get a friend with a nice camera to come along and put an album together.
SpaceX is just south of LAX and there will be a few hundred of us on the roof watching it come in for landing. Our 50’ roof is the tallest around, so we should have a good view. My wife works at JPL and they get their own flyover too. It’ll be a fun morning.
Got to see the final approach. The actual landing was “behind” a building from where I was. Strange, I got to see the first flight of the shuttle program when Enterprise made it’s first drop test. Now I got to see the last landing. Those two events bracket much of my career.
I could imagine a ton of cars just stopping there backing up traffic… Though I do know some people who work on the high rises that overlook the runway who will be watching!
