Hurricane coming, so Endeavour returning early

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by Stephen Withers

Monday, 20 August 2007

! The space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station a day early in order to land at Kennedy Space Center before Hurricane Dean affects operations at Mission Control, Houston. Related stories NASA announces Atlantis roll out to launch pad for Hubble mission International Digital Entertainment Festival expands eGames Expo Computer program to combat astronaut depression could help people on Earth Neverfail picks Pacific pair Shuttleworth and Ubuntu keep moving on up The first landing opportunity is at 12.32pm on Tuesday. according to NASA officials. Hurricane Dean is tracking across the Caribbean towards Mexico, but there is a chance that tropical storm force winds will hit southern Texas. The most recent projections put Houston outside the affected area, but there is still a chance that the hurricane will change direction. A final inspection of damage to Endeavour's heat shield was performed after undocking, but so far NASA is still of the opinion that the cut suffered by two tiles during launch will not affect re-entry. The STS-118 mission included installation of the space station's Starboard 5 truss segment, replacing a failed attitude control gyroscope, and transferring tonnes of cargo. Teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan's third educational event from orbit was cancelled due to the rescheduled departure from the space station. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Astronaut  NASA  Space  Space Shuttle  Space Station  Stephen Withers  Weather  Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now

 

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