Posted 8/19/2007 06:56:00 AM by Douglas

In case you're wondering why we're cutting mission short, Endeavour, take a look out the window.

Playing it safe, NASA shortened the last spacewalk for astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour and ordered the spacecraft to return to Earth on Tuesday — a day early — fearing the storm might threaten the Houston home of Mission Control.

But they did take a good picture or two:

Overheard during yesterday's EVA:

"Holy smokes! That's incredible

"It's only incredible when it's not headed towards you!"

200 miles up gives you such a clear perspective on things.

Labels: Dean, hurricanes 2007, STS-118

Posted 8/17/2007 08:23:00 PM by Douglas

The word of the hour: Dean. Is it going to come straight to Houston? Of course it is if you listen to the guys on the TV that make a living scaring the hell out of old people, but at least ONE model predicts a path where I find out what my deductible is:

So who knows. Tuesday is the time to panic. I'm not going to cut and run every time there's a cloud in the gulf, but I'm not going to hang around for 130 mile per hour wind, either. I'm also not going to sit in three mile per hour traffic ever again, either.

And just think, it was 102ºF just two days ago. Just another day in paradise. . . .

Labels: Dean, hurricanes 2007

Posted 8/17/2007 08:00:00 PM by Douglas

As I've said before, that Space Shuttle don't fly itself:

The space shuttle Endeavour could come home a day early from the International Space Station if Hurricane Dean threatens the ground operations center in Houston, NASA officials said on Friday.

"It's not ideal," shuttle commander Scott Kelly told an in-flight press conference. "But we could potentially undock the day after the (Saturday) spacewalk and come home a day early."

The powerful hurricane was barreling northwest through the Caribbean Sea and was expected to clip Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early next week and then move into the western Gulf of Mexico, potentially menacing the Texas coast.

This, after the Erin tried to flush South East Texas into the gulf like the turd that it is.

Gonna be a long weekend in mission control.

Labels: Dean, hurricanes 2007, STS-118