Mark Murray: May 2009 Archives

The Space Shuttle Atlantis was unable to land in Florida on Friday due to stormy weather. There are six possible landing opportunities on Saturday...three in Florida and three in California. With a 60% chance of rain at Kennedy on Saturday, and with the disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico, a Florida landing does not seem likely. It is possible that the shuttle could remain in orbit until Monday, if NASA chooses. Of the six opportunities, only one would bring the shuttle over Central Texas. That would be on orbit 181 with a Kennedy landing at approximately 9:54 am CDT Saturday morning.

The shuttle would then be visible as it flies just south of Waco between 9:35 am and 9:40 am. But, again...this seems like a long shot to me. Here's a link to the other landing groundtracks from NASA for Saturday. Remember, the shuttle must fly within about 100 miles of Austin for us to see it.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts125/news/landing.html

-Mark Murray

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The Space Shuttle is scheduled to land Friday morning in Florida. However, as of Thursday evening, NASA indicates that weather is likely to be a problem with too many storms in the path of Atlantis. If the weather clears, there could be two landing attempts on Friday. The first would be on orbit 165, landing at 9:00 am CDT. If NASA clears Atlantis to land on this orbit, the shuttle would pass over Brownsville, Texas between 8:40 and 8:45 am. Even during the day, if the clouds cooperate, you still should be able to see the shuttle. Here is the orbit 165 landing groundtrack.

If NASA chooses to do another orbit and land on orbit 166, it's likely we could see the shuttle as it would fly over Texas between Austin and Waco. Landing would be at 10:39 am CDT, meaning the shuttle would be visible from Austin sometime between 10:19-10:24 am...assuming the clouds are not too thick. Here is the landing groundtrack for orbit 166.

If both landing attempts are impacted by weather, then there would be up to four attempts on Saturday...two in Florida, and two in California. Landing groundtracks for those attempts would be released on Friday, and I'll try to post them here.

-Mark Murray

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The Space Shuttle Atlantis began its 11-day mission to the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday afternoon. It doesn't look like we'll have an opportunity to see the shuttle in orbit in the night sky over Texas on this trip. However, on past missions to the Hubble, the landing groundtrack has brought the shuttle over Texas on its way back to Florida. NASA does not release that information until a day or so before landing. I'll let you know on KVUE as well as on my blog if Atlantis will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere over Texas this time around. Here's more on the mission:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/11may_hubblemission1.htm?list186667

-Mark Murray

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Rodney writes:

"Hey Mark,
Sometimes your forecast calls for "breezy" conditions and sometimes it calls for "windy" conditions. What is the distinction between them? Is it a specific windspeed, or...?"

Good question, Rodney! Yes, there is a difference. Meteorologists use the term, 'breezy', when winds of 15-25 mph are expected. 'Windy' is used when winds reach 20-30 mph. We'll call it 'very windy' when winds speeds are between 30-40 mph. If winds exceed 40 mph, we'll say 'strong winds' or 'high winds'. When we expect abrupt changes in wind speed, we'll say the winds are 'gusty'.

Thanks for writing!

Mark

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