High up in space right now, the astronauts on the shuttle Atlantis are packing and checking the weather report, just like any traveler. But for these travelers, the stakes are much higher than a delayed flight or a rained-out beach vacation: If there’s bad weather in Florida, the shuttle will have to remain in space until it clears.
Atlantis is due to land on Friday morning at Kennedy Space Center, but rainy weather may force the shuttle to stay in orbit as late as Monday. What’s a little rain to a spaceship that hurtles through space, you may ask? Because apparently, rain drops turn into bullets at high speeds. From a Q&A with shuttle expert Jon Cowert:
“The shuttle cannot fly in the rain because those tiny little water droplets of rain when they hit a tile and the Shuttle is traveling at say 300, 400, Mach 2, at those kinds of speeds, it acts almost like a bullet hitting that tile. The tiles are very brittle and fragile on their outside, so they can’t stand to hit raindrops going at high speeds.
But to make things even more exciting, the shuttle’s engines aren’t even used during landing, turning Atlantis into what astronauts call a “brick with wings”:
“Once the orbiter’s in the Earth’s atmosphere, the rocket engines … are no longer used, and the orbiter really is just a brick with wings and they only have one shot at landing, there is no way to pull up and go around if they missed the runway by any measure.
No pressure, right?
The astronauts have been conserving power in the event of a delayed landing, but if the weather doesn’t clear, there are several other options: Edwards Air Force Base in California and White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. In fact, before every shuttle launch, 40 NASA employees trek out to both locations in case of an alternate landing.
In addition, there are three overseas landing opportunities, or Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) sites, in case of emergency: Istres Air Base in France and two locations in Spain at Zaragoza and Moron.
Space shuttle Endeavour is on the launch pad in Florida, ready to shoot into space if Atlantis is unable to land and the astronauts need to be rescued. There was a moment of concern last week when “dings” were spotted in the crucial heat shield. NASA says the dings, caused by debris falling off the external fuel tanks during launch, are minor.
On Wednesday — the lone “day off” for Atlantis — President Obama called the astronauts, asking them “Did you guys see my house? I’m trying to figure out if my lawn is getting mowed there. I haven’t been back in a couple months.”
