Area Residents Can Glimpse Orbiting Shuttle Today

Los Angeles-area residents will be able to catch a pre-dawn glimpse of the space shuttle Columbia as it soars over Southern California this morning, NASA officials said Tuesday.

The shuttle will also be visible in its 178-mile-high orbit Thursday and Friday mornings as it heads for a Monday touchdown at Edwards Air Force Base near Mojave after 14 days of flight, the longest in shuttle history.

Columbia lifted off Oct. 18 from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on a mission designed to study the impact of weightlessness on human physiology and how to counteract its harmful effects.

Besides its seven human crew members, the shuttle is carrying 48 rats, which scientists are using to determine why red blood cell production drops in space.

Astronauts become somewhat anemic in space due to red blood cell loss, and researchers hope to learn how to prevent this condition.

NASA said the Columbia will appear only for a minute or two each morning.

Although the shuttle normally flies closer to the Equator, its current orbit is taking it farther north, making it visible over much of the United States.

The shuttle will resemble a fast-moving star in the morning sky, said Mingo Carr, a spokeswoman for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

“Not a shooting star. But it will look like a star that’s moving fairly quickly,” she said.

Carr said the shuttle will appear at 6:27 a.m. today for one minute, moving from the southwest to the south. On Thursday, it will appear at 6:25 a.m. for two minutes, traveling from west-southwest to north-northeast. On Friday, the shuttle will be visible at 6:24 a.m. for two minutes moving from west to north-northeast.

The Columbia is scheduled to touch down at Edwards at 7:08 a.m. Monday.

The base’s three main gates will be open to members of the public who wish to watch the landing.