Space Shuttle To Be Visible Above Bay Area Friday, Sunday
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) -- The International Space Station and space shuttle Endeavour will be over the Bay Area early Friday morning and again early Sunday morning and could be visible from the ground if the sky is clear, according to the NASA Ames Research Center.
The shuttle and space station will be in orbit nearly 220 miles above the earth's surface and will look like a bright star approaching from the southwest and moving directly overhead.
The first opportunity to see the shuttle and space station will be around 5:15 a.m. Friday. They will be visible again around 4:27 a.m. Sunday, according to NASA.
The space shuttle and its six-man crew are on a 16-day mission to deliver an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, and spare parts to the space station.
The AMS is a 15,000-pound particle physics detector designed to search for unusual matter by measuring cosmic rays. Experiments with AMS data are designed to help researchers study the formation of the universe and search for evidence of dark matter, strange matter and antimatter, according to NASA.
The current mission is the final flight for Endeavour and the penultimate flight for the Space Shuttle Program, according to NASA.
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)
