Shuttle to Land at Edwards AFB
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of the shuttle, yes, it's time to talk about the shuttle Discovery landing, and it will land, we promise. Let's head out to Kennedy Space Center and, Miles O'Brien, explain.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, it's -- I guess the simple explanation is the weather is terrible here. That's the simple explanation. A lot of questions, though, from people as to all these decisions, why they pick certain landing points at certain times. Got a little animation here, which may or may not help explain a little bit of orbital mechanics. There won't be a quiz on this, don't worry, folks. Shuttle going around the globe, 56 degrees inclination to the equator. The Earth spins beneath it, OK. So it's at that angle. The Earth moves at about 1,000 miles every orbit. There's the Kennedy Space Center opportunities, because you see how the orbit goes. And then, as the morning goes on, suddenly White Sands, New Mexico is available. And then as the morning gets a little later, now we can make it to Edwards Air Force Base. That's why you see first Kennedy Space Center and then, as the morning progresses, we get into Edwards' opportunities. Let's talk about the opportunities here that are now history. The weather plane here, shuttle training aircraft it is called, was flown this morning by astronaut Kent Rominger. And he spent a lot of time. You can see the infrared shot. This would have, if we were luckier, this would have been a shot, this camera would have been used to document the shuttle's arrival. Instead, we got a Gulf Stream jet, modified to fly like a shuttle, flying all around. And what he saw was bad news, lots of embedded thunderstorms, rain showers, clouds offshore, and more importantly, ominously developing inland. There you see the pictures we captured this morning. When you're headed to a shuttle landing and you see that you think maybe that's not going to happen today. So where are we going, Edwards Air Force Base, long way from where I'm sitting, unfortunately, but it's hard to predict shuttle landings. The Edwards Air Force Base approach, let me take you through that right now. It comes down into the California's high desert. This is, you know, fighter pilot country here. And, as you can see, it's a long runway, about as long as the runway here. Off to the south and west, Runway 22. This will be the 50th landing of the space shuttle at Edwards Air Force Base. Astronaut Cady Coleman has never landed there, as far as I know. You came back here?</s>CADY COLEMAN, NASA ASTRONAUT: I did, both times.</s>O'BRIEN: And we talked a little bit a little while ago about whether the crew cares one way or another. They're just ready to come home. They want to see their family as soon as possible. Their families are here. So, ideally, here is a good place to be.</s>COLEMAN: It's true. But you know you've got to go where the weather is, and the weather looks great at Edwards. And it was a tough call here today.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, actually, probably today more of a black-and-white call than yesterday, right? Yesterday was a tougher call.</s>COLEMAN: Yesterday's second attempt was definitely a tough call.</s>O'BRIEN: So, as far as the weather-making decision, the rules are black and white; but the situation is, because it's weather, very fluid, and you're predicting a couple of hours in advance. So, truly, if there is any sort of doubt, they really do err on the side conservatism on this -- Cady?</s>COLEMAN: They need to. And you know the problem is they need to predict the weather, what it will be like in, you know, an hour. And if it's something that is developing and moving, that's difficult to do.</s>O'BRIEN: We should point out, and perhaps we take this for granted with viewers here and there, this is a glider. There's only one opportunity for landing. Why don't we elaborate on that just a little bit?</s>COLEMAN: Well, we actually sort of point our engines into the wind and do our deorbit burn halfway around the world. And even though we're going 17,500 miles an hour, we slow down by just a few hundred miles per hour, about 200 or 300, and then that is enough. That means we're going to land on the other side of the Earth. So once we do that burn, we are landing on the other side of the Earth somewhere. We prefer it to be on a nice runway with nice weather.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes. A little after 8:00 a.m. Eastern, 8:12 to be precise, we will see a scene that looks not unlike this. This is one of the previous 49 Edwards Air Force Base arrivals. And I can almost guarantee you the sky will look like that, CAVU, ceiling and visibility unlimited. About 14 seconds before landing, that landing gear comes down. And knowing Eileen Collins, she will grease it, as they say. Cady Coleman can attest to that fact. She came back from space on an Eileen Collins piloted/commanded shuttle and didn't even know she was on the ground.</s>COLEMAN: It is true. When we went to go de-rotate the nose, I was almost out of my seat because I didn't think the main gear had touched the ground. She's great.</s>O'BRIEN: All right.</s>COLEMAN: It will be a night landing today, as well. About 53 minutes before sunrise is my understanding?</s>O'BRIEN: Good point. It'll be clear skied, but we won't be as confident of that because it will be a dark sky. Cady Coleman, thank you for keeping me honest, appreciate that. Carol, looks like I went to the wrong city. I don't think I have time -- I don't think I have time to get out to Edwards, so we're going to get Ted Rowlands there in a little bit. We'll check in with him and see how things look at Edwards.</s>COSTELLO: Well you can watch it and explain right from where you are. Thank you -- Miles.</s>O'BRIEN: That's right.</s>COSTELLO: Now we want to go to a woman who knows firsthand what the shuttle astronauts are going through. Former NASA astronaut Kathy Sullivan was the first American woman to walk in space. She joins us now from Columbus, Ohio. Good morning once again.</s>KATHY SULLIVAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Hi -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: So you have actually landed at Edwards Air Force Base?</s>SULLIVAN: I have. And, in fact, it was aboard Discovery in 1990 coming home from deploying the Hubble Space Telescope.</s>COSTELLO: So what's it like?</s>SULLIVAN: It's a great runway. It's a great place to land anytime. I might be slightly biased having grown up in southern California. But the runway, as Miles was pointing out, it's just as long as the runway at the Cape is, it's not quite as wide, but that's no real issue for Eileen with an expected normal landing. There's that huge lakebed complex right nearby, which of course will not be what they will use or need today. But from a crew onboard point of view, both Eileen and Jim are so familiar with both runways. They've flown hundreds of approaches in simulation practice to each one, so this will be fine with them. And they're probably taking bets and flipping coins for who buys the margaritas tonight.</s>COLEMAN: I bet they are. OK, so once they get all of their preparations done and they prepare to actually land, how long does it take to get way down from space to land on Earth?</s>SULLIVAN: Well it literally does take one-half a revolution around the planet. And normally that would be about 45 minutes with an orbit just taking 90 minutes. But of course you're slowing down, so the total process is about an hour. So they'll start with a burn back over the western part of the Indian Ocean, start hitting the atmosphere way out in the still western Pacific, around the Tuamoto Islands (ph). And then begin picking up atmospheric affects at 400,000 feet and shifting the space shuttle from acting like a satellite to step-by-step acting like an airplane, until they line up and touch down on the runway.</s>COSTELLO: OK, I just have a few more questions about how it feels. Can you feel the shuttle moving really fast? And can you see anything as you're landing?</s>SULLIVAN: Entry is a fascinating set of perceptions. You don't feel any sense of motion while you're weightless and zero gravity. But as you begin to feel the deceleration, the air and the drag slowing the outside of the vehicle, you're very precisely aware of your body beginning to be restrained by the seatbelts. You do feel some of the G-force as you do the roll reversals, especially later in the re-entry. You hear wind noise building up around you as you get thicker and thicker into the deep atmosphere just a minute or two before landing. And finally, when you rollout, you know one of the key signs is everything that's been dangling at the end of a tether starts now hanging at the end of a tether and acting like it's back on Earth. And you feel pretty heavy as you pick that pencil up.</s>COSTELLO: How fascinating. So once you hit the Earth's atmosphere, does the scenery like starkly change or is it gradual?</s>SULLIVAN: It's fairly stark. The big roll reversals the shuttle does are not the kind of things you're used to in an airliner coming in for landing. We're talking 80 or 90 degrees to make sure that you slice down into the atmosphere. And the route, we roll back and forth from one angle to the other quite rapidly. So it's really sort of like flip-flopping back and forth five times. The horizon moves very, very quickly in front of your eyes. It's very, very dramatic. And of course in the midst of all of that and running through it is the great drama of atmospheric penetration itself, those eight minutes or so where it's like you're sitting inside a blast furnace that has wind streaming through it.</s>COSTELLO: That just sounds fascinating. So all of this will go down at 8:12 Eastern this morning, at least we hope so.</s>SULLIVAN: Well we hope that's when the wheels touch the runway.</s>COSTELLO: I hope so, Kathy, I do. So you stick around for a while, and thanks for informing. That was fascinating stuff. Let's head back out to Kennedy Space Center and, Miles, because, boy, Ted Rowlands, he's quick.</s>O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Carol, appreciate that. Thank you, Carol. Are you there?</s>COSTELLO: I am here.</s>O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. There are all kinds of people talking to me, Carol. We've got a little party line going here. Are you talking to me now?</s>COSTELLO: I'm talking to you now, Miles, and I'm asking you about Ted Rowlands.</s>O'BRIEN: Is it my turn?</s>COSTELLO: It is your turn.</s>O'BRIEN: All right. It's always nice to hear from the Control Room, it's just sometimes it's not. Let's head over to Edwards, because we're in the wrong place to see a shuttle landing today. The good news is, you here at home, it will be transparent to you. You will see the shuttle regardless. We just won't have it right behind us. I'm sitting beside astronaut Cady Coleman. She's upset about that. Ted Rowlands, however, is the lucky guy today who will actually be there. Ted, set the scene for us there in the high desert of California.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the weather is terrific, according to NASA, ideal weather conditions. There is a slight wind here, but it maxed out at seven knots, not going to be a problem at all. The skies are clear. The adrenaline level sure went up here in the media room and amongst NASA employees within the hour when it was determined that indeed the shuttle would be ending the mission here at Edwards. And of course it's been since 2002 since Endeavor landed here. But folks here are used to shuttle landings. As you mentioned earlier, 49 shuttle landings have taken place here at Edwards Air Force Base. And this used to be the preferred landing spot. So, that said, there's a lot of excitement here. The public will not be able to see anything. The public is not allowed on to the base here, and this base is massive. Plus, it is going to still be dark. It will be 5:12 local here. So the viewing opportunities are going to be minimal, despite the fact that the shuttle will be going over southern California. Had it been light, it would have been viewing -- there could be a lot of viewing. That will not be the case. That said, a lot of excitement here. And we are expecting that the astronauts will, in some form, speak to us. There's a news conference panel all set up. They expect that at least Eileen Collins will make some statements when she's inspecting the craft after the landing. And then about six hours after they touch down, a full news conference is expected here at Edwards.</s>O'BRIEN: Well it sounds like, Ted, you've got a long day at Edwards. We should point out to our viewers, of course it's kind of early there right now, but southern California is going to get quite a show. Let's show you the animation, which shows you the flight track as Discovery will come in across the southern California area part of the world. Let's see if we can zoom in and show you that animation. We can give you the flight path. And there you go. That's a little late in the game, but what you can see is before that part of it what was there, if we could have rolled that back I could have showed you. What I'm trying to tell you is, if I could get my little graphics to come along with me, is if you're in southern California this morning, go outside a little bit before 5:00 a.m. local time and look up. And there's a very good chance you're going to see this streaking meteor go overhead. You might hear a couple of sonic booms. They usually come in pairs, ba-boom. And don't call the police, it's OK, it's the space shuttle coming home. It'll be quite a sight. Ted Rowlands, by the time it gets to you, it'll be subsonic, so you won't get -- you'll still hear sonic booms in the distance. But the beauty, of course, of the technology is that we'll be able to see the shuttle with an infrared camera as it comes down there at Edwards Air Force Base. What time -- the sun comes up, what, about an hour or so after it lands?</s>ROWLANDS: Yes, so it's going to be difficult to see it. In fact, there's an opportunity to go out onto the -- to the viewing area, but the NASA folks say because it is going to be a landing in the evening hours, or early morning hours, it's going to be dark out. Literally you're going to see the landing gear hit and it's going to zoom by. So it's going to be very difficult to see. But, as you mentioned, there will be full coverage with NASA TV and the infrared cameras. As for people, the general public, the flight path originally is to come above about Santa Monica and through the L.A. area. So a lot of folks will have an opportunity, if they do go outside, possibly you'll see some lights. But I think it's going to be pretty quick and they may not be able to appreciate it, but they should hear something, the sonic booms.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, they will be moving rather smartly, even as they pass over Los Angeles in the wee hours this morning. Ted Rowlands has got the front row seat. We're on the other coast this morning. I'm with Cady Coleman. She's landed in the shuttle a couple of times here but never at Edwards. Let's point out one thing, everybody, of course, two-and-a-half years ago, we saw the loss of Columbia, wreckage falling down on Texas. There was a lot of extra effort taken to ensure that the flight path did not go over populated areas. We're going right over Los Angeles this morning, but at a very different phase of the flight. Why don't you point that out so that people understand the relative risks?</s>COLEMAN: Well the peak heating is actually about six-and-a-half or seven minutes after entry interface, that's 40 minutes before landing. You know, over L.A., that's just a couple of minutes before landing. And so, you know, basically, it's a pretty safe place to be.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean if you think about where the shuttle was when it broke up in Texas versus Florida, that is the critical moment. Here we go with that animation. Now we can show you as the shuttle comes in across the Pacific, right about there is about the peak heating. Then down in right over Los Angeles. People there will wake up in it. Or it should be something, because the shuttle will probably be illuminated by the sun at its altitude, so you'll see a wonderful show there. And then down to the high desert there of California where shuttles have landed 49 times before onto that long landing strip, about three miles long there, Runway 22, which is a southwesterly direction is what we're going to see at 8:12, assuming all goes well for the shuttle re-entry. So we are watching this very closely, Cady and I, watching it from afar. Ted Rowlands up close and personal. And either way, you'll get a wonderful view right here on CNN live as the shuttle comes home after two weeks on this "Return to Flight" mission -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right, Miles and Cady, thank you so much. We're going to take a short break. We'll be back with much more. 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