Space Station and Shuttle

Mark Hodges from the Science Museum of Western Virginia sent us this cool photo of the International Space Station and Shuttle Endeavor.

In his email he writes: "I shot this this evening at 9:30pm from the 5th floor parking deck at Center in the Square passing over the Hometown Bank building. The Space Station is first with the shuttle just passing over the top of the building."

This photo was time-lapsed and is very good considering the amount of ambient light in Downtown Roanoke at night.

The image was taken just in time, as Endeavor will be returning to earth this afternoon, a day earlier than expected. Staff at mission control in Houston was concerned that Hurricane Dean might impact the weather there, causing communication issued between the shuttle and ground staff.

Today's landing of endeavor will take place around noon in Florida. Endeavour's first landing path would take the crew over the Pacific Ocean, Central America and Cuba before touching down at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

If bad weather forces NASA to scrub that landing attempt, the shuttle's second opportunity would include flying over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, which was battered Tuesday morning by Hurricane Dean. If the shuttle crosses above the hurricane, it will be too high to feel its effects, according to NASA.

Pretty interesting. As always, thanks for the photo Mark.

--Brent