Satnews Daily
September 21st, 2009

Shuttle Shuttling Off, Piggyback, To Kennedy Space Center


Shuttle Discovery on 747 to Kennedy Yesterday (Sunday), Shuttle Discovery sat atop its 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft are at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana, where the ferry flight team will stay overnight. Discovery arrived at 6:39 p.m. EDT, about 20 minutes behind the ferry flight's "pathfinder" support aircraft, a NASA C-9 plane.

Barksdale was the third stop on Sunday. The cross-country ferry flight to NASA's Kennedy Space Center began with a 9:20 a.m. departure from Edwards Air Force Base in California. That was followed by refueling stops at Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas and Ft. Worth Naval Air Station, Texas. The ferry flight team members plan to finish their 2,500 trip by returning to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today (Monday). (Photo: Space shuttle Discovery and its modified 747 carrier aircraft leave Edwards Air Force Base on the first leg of its flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: Tom Tschida, NASA.)