The State : Shuttle Takes 747 to Florida
The space shuttle Columbia left Edwards Air Force Base for Cape Canaveral, Fla., riding piggyback on a modified Boeing 747, said Dan Haley, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman. The shuttle will be readied for its next space mission at the Florida launch site, he said. The piggyback flight will stop in Wichita Falls, Tex., for refueling at Sheppard Air Force Base before continuing east. The shuttle landed in California’s Mojave Desert Aug. 13 after a five-day secret military mission to deploy a spy satellite. Columbia’s next flight is scheduled Dec. 18, when the shuttle crew will launch a Navy communications satellite and retrieve a bus-sized scientific satellite.
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