Sunday, August 19, 2007

STS-118 May Land on Tuesday

NASA has planned the first landing opportunity of STS-118 to be at Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. The landing was moved up a day in case Dean required the JSC in Houston to close.

Dean's latest probability cones put the hurricane well south of Houston, though tropical storm force is possible. This is much less ominous than the forecasts of a couple days ago, which sent the eye right into Texas. Hurricanes, of course, do whatever they want to do, but in this case a strong high pressure system will determine how far north Dean gets.

For sonic boom and/or photography fans, the STS-118 ground tracks for the various landing opportunities are here.