Technology news and Jobs arrow Science arrow Hurricane coming, so Endeavour returning early
Hurricane coming, so Endeavour returning early E-mail
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.

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.

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