The 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft with shuttle Discovery on top has departed Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana and is now heading toward Kennedy Space Center. The aircraft took off from Barksdale at about 9:40 a.m. EDT.
Without any weather delays it is about a two-hour, 45-minute flight to Kennedy. The earliest Discovery would arrive at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility is about 12:30 p.m. But the team is going to have to fly around a line of showers over central Louisiana first and then see whether storms currently around Kennedy will permit a landing. If weather is not cooperative, Discovery could divert to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.