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The public has been invited to NASA Ames on Friday morning, Sept. 21, as space shuttle Endeavour is set to make a historic flight over Mountain View, riding piggyback on a Boeing 747. The event, originally scheduled for Thursdays, was postponed due to weather, NASA officials announced.
At 9 a.m. a countdown is set to begin for the low-level flyover that is expected to pass over NASA Ames Research Center and possibly parts of Mountain View.
NASA Ames has has reached a limit on car passes for the event, but attendees are encourages to take light rail or bus to the event, which can be accessed through the Moffett Field entrance gates at the north end of Moffett Boulevard and the north end of Ellis Street.
When gates open at 6 a.m. there will be food trucks and information booths about the shuttle program. Speeches are set for 8:30 a.m., including one from Ames director Pete Worden and a “special guest speaker.”
The event celebrates the accomplishments of the now defunct shuttle program, its 25 missions, 299 days in orbit and for going around the Earth “4,671 times while travelling 122,883,151 miles.”
Attendees are asked to bring hearing protection because the of the low altitude of the flight — 1,500 feet.
“The SCA and Endeavour will take off from Dryden and perform a low-level flyover of northern California, passing near NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and various landmarks in multiple cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento,” says a press release from NASA Ames.
“Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or canceled,” warns the NASA Ames Facebook page.
Updates on the event can be found on this NASA Ames web page.
What a huge waste of money!
I know someone who saw this on the East Coast in the Spring. She said it was spectacular to see. I hope I get to see it.
On the day you may be able to track where she is here:
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/NASA905
FYI: Endeavor’s namesake.
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/02jun_jamescook/
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts134/endeavour_captains_letters.html
What is the purpose of these flyovers? It seems like an odd thing to do, especially given that our government has cancelled the Space Shuttle program.
I think it draws some public attention to the Shuttle program and that this shuttle will be on public display in LA. The NASA Ames flyover is a tribute to the Shuttle work that was done there.
This is awesome. Someone asked what is the purpose. For one this also pay tribute to those who lost their live in this program. Remember for future generations, this planet will not last forever. If the planet expired in one year, where would you go if you had a chance to survive on another planet.
Lu
Back in the day, Ames high speed and electo-arc wind tunnels were used to develop the hypersonic glider we call the Shuttle. It’s fitting one should fly by.
Flight is postponed ’till Friday, due to enroute wx.
Postponed until Friday http://losaltos.patch.com/articles/nasa-ames-hosts-endeavour-flyover-viewing-party-friday-c57643db
To be clear, this statement is inaccurate: “The event celebrates the accomplishments of the now defunct shuttle program, its 25 missions, 299 days in orbit and for going around the Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles.”
Those are the statistics for the Endeavor itself. The entire program had 135 missions, 1,323 days in orbit and 21,030 orbits around the earth. 180 satellites and payloads were deployed by shuttles, and 355 different astronauts (309 men, 46 women) from 16 countries flew on the shuttle.
From 1981 – 2001, the project generated jobs for hundreds of thousands of people for decades while generating numerous medical and scientific advances. The 30 year project cost $209 Billion, which is just 6% of our national budget this year (or 1/3 of today’s defense department budget).
Or put another way, it cost roughly twenty dollars per person in the country per year from 1981 – 2011.
I think it sucks that they won’t land at Moffet … I think it would be appropriate to land and at least let the NASA employees take pictures etc for the last time. I feel they at least owe it to the employees and all that were involved in the shuttle program.
How far away from moffett field will the shuttle be visible as it flies by? I live in a surrounding neighborhood and I want to know how many miles away I’ll be able to seeitfrom.
A 747 at five miles is the angular size of the moon, about half your little fingernail at arm’s length. Closer is better. Binoculars help. Photographers need to consider the east-southeast sun angle (az 111, el 26 at 9:15 PDT). People on the airfield will be looking into the sun, but the current forecast is mostly cloudy. Given my aversion to traffic, I plan to watch from the Ellis/101 VTA light-rail station (service every 15 minutes until ~10am, then half-hours). A bike/foot alternative is the baylands trail around the north of Ames/Moffett.
and to you whiners about cost, this is being paid for by the LA Science Center, where it will be housed.
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