Shuttle Landing at 1802 GMT

[airboatr]

and if you care to you can watch it here live
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/live_tv.html
this is the NASA live tv link so it'll be on through out the day

the first coast to coast re entry flyover since the Columbia broke up
during re entry.

[petermcleland]

I've been pretty glued to it for about a week :flying:

[airboatr]

It is quite fascinating peter
I'll be hearing the double sonic boom from West Palm Beach as she bangs through the air
making her way home.
boom boom
luvly dubly

[FlyTexas]

Her landing track should take her just south of where I live here in Texas. It's kind of cloudy currently but if the clouds clear I'll take the camera outside and snap a pic of her as she whizzes past.

Brian

[airboatr]

Her landing track should take her just south of where I live here in Texas. It's kind of cloudy currently but if the clouds clear I'll take the camera outside and snap a pic of her as she whizzes past.

Brian

hopfully she wont take a wizz on you



sory I'll get my hat

[FlyTexas]

Her landing track should take her just south of where I live here in Texas. It's kind of cloudy currently but if the clouds clear I'll take the camera outside and snap a pic of her as she whizzes past.

Brian

hopfully she wont take a wizz on you



sory I'll get my hat

I'll be happy if she just stays in one piece when she flies overhead. The memories of Columbia still haunt me. :-(

Brian

[airboatr]

fingers and toes crossed
she'll be ok
they are being more careful these days.
I remember Challenger when she was lost
I couldn;t quite make out what I was seeing that day
I'd never seen smoke trails in the sky like that before.....

See I can watch it go up from My place here in West Palm Beach on a good day.
..............and the night launches <<Forget about it
It looks like a Humongus road flare going up in the sky
just spectacular......
anywho
good luck with your view point today!

[FlyTexas]

Aww nuts. The landing track for the first landing opportunity takes Discovery well to the north of Texas. I doubt I will be able to get a pic but I'll still be outside just in case she's visible from here.

Brian

[Garry Russell]

Hi Brian......you comment above......did you actually see Columbia ???

Garry

[FlyTexas]

Yes Garry, I watched Columbia's return while standing in front of my house. :-( As I watched
Columbia approach from the west all seemed normal until I saw what appeared to be a flare depart
Columbia and rise (from my vantage point) above it. The scene looked sort of like when a fighter
jet launches a flare to protect itself from a heat-seeking missile. A few moments later I saw
more "flares" depart Columbia. Needless to say at that point I knew something was not right.

Once Columbia dissapeared from view to the east, I ran inside the house to watch NASA TV and see
what the heck was going on. At that point NASA did not appear to be aware of what had just
happened in the skies over Texas. Moments later NASA announced that they had lost communications
with Columbia...that's when I started to tremble and cry. The whole episode had a very surreal
feel to it. Throught the rest of the day I almost could not believe what I had witnessed that
morning. It was a very bad day. :-(

Watching the Shuttle return to Earth is amazing. As the Shuttle flies over Texas it looks like a
bright white Tic-Tac with a white contrail. Its contrail swirls and swirls and then
dissapates just like a jetliner's contrail. What always impresses me the most is that there are 7
human beings riding inside that blazing "Tic-Tac" and somehow they live to tell the tale. 15
minutes after the Shuttle zips past me in Texas it's on the ground in Florida. :o The whole
thing just amazes me to no end.

Brian