Space Shuttle Landing Flies Over The USA

At 9:09 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, the space shuttle successfully touched down in Florida, bringing the spectacular shuttle landing path to an end. When the space shuttle completed the shuttle landing path over the United States, it had flown over a payday advance store in North Dakota all the way to a bar in Georgia. After two scrubbed landings yesterday, this space shuttle landing was not assured to be a go – in fact, for a when, it was under question.

Space shuttle landing today almost did not happen

This morning was the 3rd attempt NASA made at landing Discovery at the Florida space center. Yesterday, two tries were canceled because of clouds and bad weather. The space shuttle landing today had to be delayed by an Earth orbit due to nearby rain showers. After 238 complete orbits around the earth, Discovery touched down.

Shuttle landing path

The shuttle landing path that Discovery took was very unusual for NASA. NASA has avoided overland shuttle landing paths ever since the 2003 Columbia disaster. When the Columbia broke apart, it scattered debris across Nevada, New Mexico, California, and Texas. The landing path of the Discovery shuttle allowed the crew a no fax payday loans no credit checkworth of extra time in space and additional sleep before the space shuttle landing today, which took extreme focus. The Discovery space shuttle landing today gave an opportunity for many United States citizens to see and hear the space shuttle landing, thanks to the unusual shuttle landing path.

The remaining planned NASA shuttle missions

The next space shuttle mission NASA has prepared is designed to lift off on May 14. The current NASA space program has only 3 remaining spaceflights, which kick off with the Atlantis launch in May. On September 16, Discovery will make the final flight of its space career. Once this space shuttle fleet is retired at the end of the year, NASA can be focusing on projects such as landing on Mars.

See coverage of the space shuttle landing today

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2dCWZ92ew