Endeavour Flyover Has Lamorinda Looking Skyward

You might want to shuffle your schedule a little for the shuttle.

NASA invites the public to watch Space Shuttle Endeavour fly over the Ames Reseach Center this Friday morning, Sept 21 during its final ferry flight from Florida to its new home in Los Angeles. Weather conditions caused delay of the flight by a day.

Aviation and space enthusiasts, trekkies, and other Lamorindans looking for a passing glimpse at history, will keep their eyes peeled and ears open for a glimpse of the piggy-backing shuttle as it flies over the Bay Area. Endeavour is expected to fly over the East Bay between 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

Free to the public, the Mountain View event begins at 8 a.m. with a welcome from Center Director Pete Worden and continues with highlights of the center's contributions to the space shuttle program. These include heat shield and wind tunneltesting, shuttle astronaut training, and computational modeling among others, according to a NASA Ames press release. Gates open at 6 a.m. PDT.

The celebration culminates with the planned mid-morning flyover of the space shuttle — mounted atop NASA's modified 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft — at about 1,500 feet. The timing depends on the weather, added NASA.

Due to an expected increased of traffic in the vicinity, NASA Ames encourages attendees to take mass transit and carpool or, if driving, enter by the Ellis Gate at the Ellis Street exit of Hwy 101.

They also encourage Twitter users to use the hashtags #spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour's orbiter vehicle designation.

Can't make it? Ames hopes to webcast the program and flyover on its UStream channel from 8-10 a.m.