Space Shuttle Endeavour at Edwards AFB
December 5, 2008
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Bad weather caused the Space shuttle Endeavour to divert to Edwards Air Force Base at the conclusion of STS-126 on November 30. It was the 52nd Space Shuttle mission to land at Edwards. It will return to the Kennedy Space Center on a 747 Carrier Aircraft. On Friday, December 5 Endeavour was suspended under the Mate/Demate Device at the Dryden Flight Research Center being prepared for mounting on the 747.
High winds hampered the effort to mount it on the 747 Carrier Aircraft, so the departure was postponed until Wednesday, December 10.
Endeavour is suspended from the yellow cradle and lifted by the three yellow block and tackles. Gray workstands surround the orbiter and can be raised independently.
Thirty-one years earlier the Space Shuttle Enterprise, OV-101 is towed into the Mate/Demate Device on August 12, 1977 following its first Approach and Landing Test flight.
Former Space Shuttle astronaut Gordon Fulerton is the man in khaki with the baseball cap. He flew on two Approach and Landing test missions in the Enterprise and on the third flight of Columbia.
Endeavour is suspended from the yellow cradle and lifted by the three yellow block and tackles. Gray workstands surround the orbiter and can be raised independently.
Former Space Shuttle astronaut Gordon Fulerton is the man in khaki with the baseball cap. He flew on two Approach and Landing test missions in the Enterprise and on the third flight of Columbia.
