[Launch Alert] Space Shuttle Endeavour

[Launch Alert]

                             LAUNCH ALERT
 				  
                              Brian Webb
                     Ventura County, California
                  launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
                        www.spacearchive.info
		       
                             2012 September 18 (Tuesday) 20:25 PDT
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          SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR FLIGHT RESCHEDULED TO SEPT. 19
                         NASA Media Advisory
                             2012 SEP 18

WASHINGTON -- NASA's ferry flight of space shuttle Endeavour atop the 
747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) is rescheduled for Wednesday, 
Sept. 19 due to an unfavorable weather forecast along the flight path 
on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Endeavour now is expected to arrive at Los 
Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Friday, Sept. 21. 

On Oct. 11, 2011, NASA transferred title and ownership of Endeavour to 
the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The decision to 
reschedule the flight was made Monday in coordination with the 
science center to ensure a safe flight for Endeavour and the SCA. 
Weather predictions are favorable Wednesday for the flight path 
between Houston and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where the flight 
will originate. 

In cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, the SCA is 
scheduled to conduct low-level flyovers at about 1,500 feet above 
locations along the planned flight path. The exact timing and path of 
the ferry flight will depend on weather conditions and operational 
constraints. Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or 
cancelled. If the ferry flight is postponed again, an additional 
advisory will be issued. 

At sunrise on Sept. 19, the SCA and Endeavour will depart Kennedy's 
Shuttle Landing Facility and perform a flyover of various areas of 
the Space Coast, including Kennedy, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor 
Complex, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Patrick Air Force Base. 

The aircraft will fly west and conduct low flyovers of NASA's Stennis 
Space Center in Mississippi and the agency's Michoud Assembly 
Facility in New Orleans. As it arrives over the Texas Gulf Coast 
area, the SCA will perform low flyovers above various areas of 
Houston and Clear Lake before landing at Ellington Field near NASA's 
Johnson Space Center. 

At sunrise on Thursday, Sept. 20, the aircraft will depart Houston, 
make a refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and 
conduct low-level flyovers of White Sands Test Facility near Las 
Cruces, N.M., and NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air 
Force Base in California, before landing around mid-day at Dryden. 

Options for the NASA Social at Dryden are being evaluated. Attendees 
for the event will be notified by the NASA social media team once 
plans are decided. 

On the morning of Sept. 21, 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 Sacramento and 
San Francisco. The aircraft also will conduct a flyover of many Los 
Angeles sites before landing about 11 a.m. PDT at LAX. 

Social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings 
using the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour's orbiter 
vehicle designation. 

After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the SCA and spend 
a few weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for 
transport and display. Endeavour then will travel through Inglewood 
and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to 
the science center, arriving in the evening on Oct. 13. 

Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on display in the science 
center's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion, 
embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in 
space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers. 

Endeavour completed 25 missions, spent 299 days in orbit, and orbited 
Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles. For information 
about NASA's transfer of space shuttles to museums, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/transition  

For more about NASA missions and programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov  

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           VIEWING OF THE STARS FEATURES RING NEBULA
                   Westmont College News Release
                            2012 SEP 17

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The Ring Nebula, M57, will be the star
attraction at a free, public viewing with Westmont's powerful Keck
Telescope Friday, Sept. 21. The monthly viewing, held in conjunction
with the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, begins after 7:45 p.m. and
lasts several hours. The best viewing generally occurs later in the
evening. In case of inclement or overcast weather, please call the
Telescope Viewing Hotline at (805) 565-6272 and check the Westmont
website to see if the viewing has been canceled.

The colorful Ring Nebula in Lyra, the harp, is the atmospheric
remnants of a white dwarf star. "Although we won't be able to see the
white dwarf since it is so faint, we will be able to see the wonderful
blues and greens of its atmosphere being sloughed off into space,"
says Thomas Whittemore, Westmont physics instructor.

Whittemore also hopes to focus on the Great Globular Cluster, M13, in
Hercules, the strongman. "This ball of twinklers, estimated to contain
upwards of a million ancient stars, is a wonderful late-summer treat,"
he says. "If the seeing is particularly good this evening, we may be
able to get a glimpse of a distant galaxy, NGC 6207, which lies in the
same field as M13. This galaxy's light will have traveled 30 million
years to reach to their eyes."

The viewing may also feature open cluster M29. "This little teapot of
stars may remind viewers of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, but it
lies much further away from us compared to the Pleiades," Whittemore
says. "Estimates range from 6,000 to 7,200 light-years due to
uncertainties from the nebulosity obscuring the cluster. At any rate,
the cluster's light has been traveling to us from a time before the
pyramids were built."

The Keck Telescope is housed in the observatory between Russell Carr
Field and the track and field/soccer complex. Free parking is
available near the baseball field.

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