How NASA Moves Space Shuttles: The Ultimate Piggyback Ride – Yahoo! News

The Space Shuttle Atlantis atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) returns to the Kennedy Space Center after a ten month refurbishment. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)   How NASA Moves Space Shuttles: The Ultimate Piggyback Ride – Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/nasa-moves-space-shuttles-ultimate-piggyback-ride-132802597.html NASA’s space shuttles are gearing up to make their final voyages — this time flying piggyback a special Boeing 747 jet on the way to museum retire… More

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As the Space Shuttle was making its final approach

for landing at the Kennedy Space Center, the commander commented that he was seeing the coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.  Thank goodness for all those computers on board that spacecraft because these guys wouldn’t be able to find the landing strip.  After a brief silence he was corrected by the controllers at Kennedy Space Center.  What he was  seeing was the west coast of Florida.  Take a look at the Tracking Map  NASA was displaying during the approach from orbit.  I’ve never seen Colombia‘s map look like this.