Bad weather delays Atlantis piggyback flight

by Stevie Smith - Jun 1 2009, 15:30

With poor weather having already forced the space shuttle Atlantis to make a California detour after successfully completing its recent Hubble maintenance mission, weather concerns have now delayed plans to return the orbiter to its Florida home.

Initially scheduled to start the return trip on Sunday, a combination of thunderstorms and high winds left officials with little choice but to postpone the cross-country flight, which has an accompanying cost of some $1.8 million USD.

According to Florida Today, the space shuttle is set to receive a piggyback ride aboard a modified Boeing 747 jetliner and will take off for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida some time on Monday, pending a final briefing, an update on weather conditions and a final plan regarding multiple refuelling stops.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Space Center has outlined that Atlantis is expected to arrive home in Florida by Tuesday afternoon and could also mark its arrival with a low approach up the Brevard County coastline, passing the Patrick Air Force Base and Cocoa Beach. 

Already safely attached to the back of its host 747, the shuttle is sporting an aerodynamic tailcone attachment over its engines and the flight home is unlikely to pass above a ceiling of 16,000 feet.

To further protect the vehicle’s delicate heat shielding tiles, the piggyback flight will be spearheaded by a special C-9 pathfinder charged with scouting potentially problematic weather and steering the 747 around it if necessary.

A run of persistently rainy days initially led NASA mission controllers to divert Atlantis’ re-entry from Florida to California on May 24, after which more than 150 associated technicians were dispatches across the country in order to prepare the shuttle for its jumbo ferry ride home.

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