EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE : Shuttle to Be Visible This Morning and Friday
Los Angeles 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.
The shuttle also will be visible in its 178-mile-high orbit on Friday morning 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.
NASA said the craft will appear only for a minute or two each morning. Looking like a fast-moving star, the shuttle will appear at 6:25 a.m. this morning for two minutes, traveling from west-southwest to north-northeast, according to a spokeswoman for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. On Friday, it will be visible at 6:24 a.m. for two minutes moving from west to north-northeast.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
