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Shuttle soars over county in next-to-last flight

TAHLEQUAH — Local authorities received a flood of calls Tuesday morning after many area residents believed an explosion had occurred somewhere in the county.

Callers said a loud noise shook their windows around 8 a.m. It turned out to be the sonic boom created by NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, returning from its next-to-last mission.

After the shuttle soared over the Oklahoma sky, several county residents reported seeing it, making them part of NASA history as the space shuttle program winds toward its retirement this year. Minutes after zooming over Oklahoma, Discovery made a safe landing at 8:09 a.m. CST at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

The shuttle’s return was a day later than scheduled after two opportunities to land were delayed Monday because of weather conditions. Because of the delay, the return utilized a return path that took it over the North Pacific, over Vancouver, then southeast over Washington, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida.

NASA said Discovery’s seven astronauts aboard traveled more than six million miles on the journey. The shuttle carried more than 7 tons of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station.

The flight was the second of 2010, and was reportedly the first time four women have been in space at one time. Under future plans, only three shuttle missions are left before NASA’s fleet of craft retire: Atlantis is expected for a flight in May, Endeavour is slated for its last mission in July, and Discovery will take its final flight - as well as the program’s - in September.

[Grammatical note. "reportedly" is used in the wrong context in the above sentence. It was the first time four women have been in space at one time. Why even introduce that modifier??]

According to NASA, during re-entry and landing, the orbiter is not powered by engines, but flies like a glider. About half an hour after the deorbit burn, the craft will start to experience effects of the atmosphere, usually at an altitude of about 80 miles and more than 5,000 statute miles from the landing site in Florida. It will then slice through the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, bringing with it a sonic boom that may rattle windows, but has little or no effect on humans, wildlife or property.

The landing process, once the orbiter is about 25 miles out from its landing strip, will take only another five minutes or so, according to NASA. The main landing gear hits the runway between 214 and 226 mph, and will eventually coast to a stop.

The paved runway at Kennedy is 15,000 feet long with a 1,000-foot overrun on each end. The width is about the length of a football field at 300 feet, according to NASA, with 50-foot asphalt shoulders on each side. Kennedy’s concrete runway is 16 inches thick in the center, and 15 inches thick on the sides. The landing strip also has a slope of 24 inches from the center line to the edge.