Now, NASA hopes to land space shuttle

NASA managers have cleared space shuttle Endeavour to return to Earth on Sunday; now all they need is for the weather to cooperate.

NASA managers have cleared space shuttle Endeavour to return to Earth on Sunday; now all they need is for the weather to cooperate. Endeavour’s seven astronauts hoped to land at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, but winds and storm clouds were strong possibilities at the landing site.

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So NASA managers have activated the runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California as a backup site. Although there are four landing opportunities, NASA managers only want to make three attempts on Sunday. “We’re going to be evaluating to make sure it’s a good, safe place to land,” said Bryan Lunney, entry flight director. Endeavour’s crew has enough supplies to last until Tuesday, but NASA officials want the crew on the ground no later than Monday.

NASA managers would prefer to land in Florida since that’s where Endeavour is housed, and it would spare the space agency $1.8 million of flying the shuttle to Florida. NASA may struggle to afford new space missions A new report by a US National Research Council panel has indicated that the huge tag prices attached to NASA’s proposed space missions will make it difficult for the agency to scrape together the necessary cash.

According to a report in New Scientist, many of the missions will cost a minimum of $5 billion. “They are flagship class missions, and if you look at what the NASA budget is now for science missions, it doesn’t seem like a lot of them would fit in that budget,” said a panel co-chair and former shuttle astronaut Kathryn Thornton.