Click photo to enlarge <\/p>\n
This photo provided by NASA shows space shuttle Endeavour atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Sept. 17, 2012 in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo\/NASA, Bill Ingalls) <\/p>\n
If all goes as planned, the Bay Area will be treated to the stunning spectacle Friday of the space shuttle Endeavour riding across the region's sky and dipping low toward the ground on the back of a 747 carrying a piece of American ingenuity into retirement. <\/p>\n
I'm pretty jazzed. And Silicon Valley should be, too. <\/p>\n
Face it: If any one place could get excited about hosting the first and last Northern California flyover of a space shuttle, it's Silicon Valley, a place that not only can claim to be the spaceship's birthplace (more or less), but also is the land where the geekerati are obsessively fixated on just what technology makes possible. <\/p>\n
Weather permitting, it will be a morning of wide eyes and craned necks, as the 100-ton shuttle jets from Sacramento, where it will make a low pass near the Capitol; to San Francisco, where it will fly low near the Golden Gate Bridge; and on to Moffett Field, where in honor of NASA Ames, the piggybacking shuttle will make its final low pass -- at 1,500 feet or so, NASA officials say. <\/p>\n
\"I just think it's so cool. It's going to fly low and people will be able to see it,\" says Donald James, NASA Ames' acting director of new ventures and communication who's been with the space agency for 30 years. \"A space shuttle has never been in Northern California, ever, and it's never going to be here again.\" <\/p>\n
The flight, which should reach Moffett sometime after 9 a.m., is a farewell flight, after all. <\/p>\n
While the shuttle remains a technological marvel, Endeavour's goodbye tour is a reminder that there is only so much humans can conquer with know-how. The weather, particularly low cloud cover, could wreak havoc on NASA's plans, or even scrub Endeavour's last mission. Stormy weather along Endeavour's cross-country flight path already has pushed its Bay Area visit back from Thursday to Friday. Friday's Bay Area forecast is for low clouds, burning off by late morning, so keep your fingers crossed. <\/p>\n
Only a general flight schedule had been released as of Monday, but considering the flight's schedule at Moffett and its need to be in Los Angeles by about 11 a.m., you can assume the shuttle and its chauffeur will be flying through the Bay Area from roughly 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Cassidy: Space shuttle Endeavour expected to take final flight over Silicon Valley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Click photo to enlarge This photo provided by NASA shows space shuttle Endeavour atop NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or SCA, at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Monday, Sept. Continue reading