When is Discovery being ferried to Florida?

[MeteorWayne]

I told you so..

from spaceflightnow...same link as above.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009
The dynamic weather situation over the southern United States will keep shuttle Discovery parked at Edwards Air Force Base for an additional day. NASA says the ferryflight home from California to Florida will start no sooner than Sunday morning.
"Shuttle managers will meet again with air crews and the weather team at 2 p.m. EDT Saturday to discuss how possible a Sunday morning departure would be and decide the best route to get Discovery back to Kennedy within two days, weather permitting," an agency spokesman says.

 

[Zipi]

At least looking from this picture it seems that they are using N905NA instead of N911NA as SG said:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/1808 ... 53-100.jpg

There seems to be only two upper deck windows which means N905NA. N911NA has five upperdeck windows.

But of course there are MDD stuctures blocking the view pretty badly, so I might be wrong with this...

 

[franklin091209]

Bee-ee-a-utiful.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Have to ask from one of the folks who know. Do they ever go halfway (Say to TX/OK and then wait a day before proceeding? They may be able to get that far as Texas has cleared, but lots of bad wx still from there to Florida.

 

[shuttle_guy]

From spaceFlightnow.com

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2009
Space shuttle Discovery will begin its ferryflight across the country beginning at daybreak Sunday, departing Edwards Air Force Base in California atop the modified 747 carrier jet.
Attachment of the shuttle aboard the 747 has been completed at the gantry-like Mate/De-Mate Device structure. The orbiter was been hoisted up and the aircraft towed underneath Discovery for the duo to be bolted together. The work was finished overnight.

The flight plans call for departure at 6:20 a.m. local time (9:20 a.m. EDT) to head eastward on the initial segment of the coast-to-coast trip. The first refueling stop is planned at the Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas.

More at their site

 

[shuttle_guy]

Have to ask from one of the folks who know. Do they ever go halfway (Say to TX/OK and then wait a day before proceeding? They may be able to get that far as Texas has cleared, but lots of bad wx still from there to Florida.

They need to make 4 stops for fuel since they are heavy this time with all the down mass from the ISS. Other than that they will follow the weather.

 

[Zipi]

At least looking from this picture it seems that they are using N905NA instead of N911NA as SG said

SG was right and I were wrong. It is N911NA: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/imag ... 8_full.jpg

Those MDD structures blocking the view confused me.

 

[Zipi]

You can follow the flight from: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA911

Or pathfinder aircraft: http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA932

EDW liftoff video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3duL6wfziI[/youtube]

NASA's Twitter: http://twitter.com/nasa

 

[MeteorWayne]

About to land at Carswell NAS in Fort Worth.

They hope to get the Shreveport LA today.

Here's the national radar:

http://www.intellicast.com/national/rad ... imate=true

 

[franklin091209]

Well thanks for all the help you guys. That flightware site is really neat. I will use that from now on. But I was unable to see the SCA, it passed by too far away and it would have been a looong drive. 140 ish miles.
But now I know how to track it for next time.
I saw a launch once from Titusville Fl. It was STS 90 Columbia in April 98. You might not believe this story: On the day of the launch it was scrubbed for a tech prob with commo equipment. So, I was in town just for the launch with nothing to do. So I went over to the Titusville Airport and took a demo/ sightseeing flight in a cessna 152. This old guy who was the cessna pilot asked me: "So, where do you wanna go?" "How bout we go buzz the Shuttle on the pad." A replied jokingly. He said he'd see what he could do. "What? your kidding right?" and he just said: Lets go fly around a little. Well, we took off and flew stright toward the Cape. He got on the radio and spoke to somebody, he must have known someone in a high place because we flew right straight over the Shuttle landing strip at about 500 ft all the way down the lenght of it and I could see the shuttle about three miles away on the pad and the VAB and everything. That must be the most restricted airspace there is. That was a heck of an experience, I have video of it. It was real windy and choppy that day. The next day I watched the shuttle lift off. Oh and one thing I will never do if I see a launch again is video tape it because doing that took away alot of the impact of watching it. Let someone else tape it.

 

[Zipi]

But now I know how to track it for next time.

Please note that those flight numbers can change depending which SCA they use N905NA or N911NA. It is always a good idea to look web sites / forums like this to get all possible hints.

That was a heck of an experience, I have video of it.

Please post the video! At least I would like to see it. You can upload it to Youtube or something similar for handy playback.

 

[MeteorWayne]

En route to Barksdale AFB in the far NW corner of Louisiana.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA911

 

[Zipi]

Interesting comment from SCA pilot at Twitter: (the comment has been sensured soon after it was posted)

@charlesjustiz: "Worst handling I've seen in years from Fort Worth. Miserable! We got Orbiter Discovery to Barksdale in spite of their efforts."

Any ideas about the reason what could have pissed him off?

 

[MeteorWayne]

The final leg of the trip is scheduled in about 2 hours from Barksdale AFB to KSC.

 

[SpaceFan1]

Can you please tell me the expected landing time at KSC today? I would like to see it come in. Thank you!

 

[MeteorWayne]

They took off early, in the air already. Scheduled landing is 12:16 PM EDT.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA911

Thanx very much to Zipi for that link BTW

 

[MeteorWayne]

ETA is now 12:05 PM, about 18 minutes from now.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Dodged a few showers on the way in, on the ground (Fox News showed it landing)

 

[Zipi]

While waiting for KSC landing video to appear, here is Amarillo landing video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daHw--1NkwI[/youtube]

Leaving from Amarillo:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W-COZfg900[/youtube]

Probably just before KSC landing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP8nZxZgMeU[/youtube]

NasaTV KSC landing video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi1FsTbqlPM[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

Interview of Charles Justiz (SCA pilot) and Don McCormack (Ferry Operations Manager) at Barksdale AFB:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CYij6tCwPY[/youtube]

 

[Zipi]

Really nice video document about ferrying Discovery from Kalifornia to Florida: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?t=4
Second part of the document: http://thevote.abc13.com/2009/09/ferry- ... ort-2.html

A little short maybe, but absolutely worth of watching.

[EDIT]

Here is also a timelapse about demating the Discovery from N911NA:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1AsIv5aEWA[/youtube]

[/EDIT]

 

[franklin091209]

That was a heck of an experience, I have video of it.

Please post the video! At least I would like to see it. You can upload it to Youtube or something similar for handy playback. [/quote]


I finally found that old video and converted it so I could put it on youtube. It was really windy that day, thats why the shaky camera but, here's me flying over the shuttle landing strip.(its after the Grumman guys restoring the F4F Wildcat in Titusville)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Sdrv9YDlw