Shuttle managers plan to begin the cross-country ferry flight trip for Discovery on its modified 747 aircraft Sunday morning, shortly before sunrise at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Managers met with the air crew and weather team at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center this afternoon. They discussed the weather forecast for the next several days and formulated a tentative plan for the route and refueling stops along the way back to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Weather permitting, the plan is to have Discovery leave Edwards at about 9:20 a.m. EDT Sunday. The flight’s “pathfinder” support aircraft will depart about 20 minutes earlier. The 747 and pathfinder then will head to the first refueling stop at Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas.
Depending on the weather, the teams plan one additional stop before ending their travel day at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana tomorrow afternoon.
Managers expect to be able to reach Kennedy from Barksdale on Monday without any additional stops.
The low pressure weather system that forecasters have been monitoring for the last several days is expected to begin moving to the northeast and that would allow the ferry flight to reach Barksdale tomorrow.
Shuttle teams finished preparations overnight for the 2,500 mile flight, including fully attaching Discovery to the top of the 747, known as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, and moving the piggybacked pair into position to be ready for tomorrow’s departure.
The teams will have an additional weather briefing Sunday at 7 a.m. EDT before their 9:20 a.m. expected departure from Edwards.