Endeavour returning early to avoid hurricane
Pastor Dale Morgan
Endeavour returning early to avoid hurricane*
From correspondents in Washington
August 19, 2007 08:42am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
NASA says it will bring the space shuttle Endeavour back to Earth a day
early to avoid disruption to ground operations from Hurricane Dean as it
roars towards the US coast.
The shuttle will undock from the International Space Station later today
ahead of a landing on Tuesday, mission spokesman LeRoy Cain said.
"The earlier landing is being considered in the event Hurricane Dean
threatens the Houston area,'' in the southern state of Texas, where
NASA's mission control base is located, " he said.
"It would allow an opportunity for the shuttle to land before Mission
Control would be shut down to prepare for a storm.''
The shuttle had been scheduled to land back on Earth on Wednesday after
its mission to install equipment on the orbiting laboratory.
Dean, the first storm of the 2007 hurricane season in North America
(June-November) was heading for Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula,
packing 240 km/h winds.
It was characterised by the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre as an
"extremely dangerous hurricane''.