Public event set for space shuttle flyover

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Update: Shuttle to flyover NASA Ames at 10:17 a.m., coming from San Francisco.

The public has been invited to NASA Ames on Friday morning, Sept. 21, as space shuttle Endeavour is set to make a historic flight over the Bay Area, riding piggyback on a Boeing 747. The event, originally scheduled for Thursday, was postponed due to weather, NASA officials announced.

At 9 a.m. a countdown is set to begin for the low-level flyover that is expected to pass over NASA Ames Research Center and possibly parts of Mountain View.

NASA Ames has reached a limit on car passes for the event, but attendees are encourages to take light rail or bus to the event, which can be accessed through the Moffett Field entrance gates at the north end of Moffett Boulevard and the north end of Ellis Street.

When gates open at 6 a.m. there will be food trucks and information booths about the shuttle program. Speeches are set for 8:30 a.m., including one from Ames director Pete Worden and a “special guest speaker.”

The event celebrates the accomplishments of the now defunct shuttle program, its 25 missions, 299 days in orbit and for going around the Earth “4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles.”

Attendees are asked to bring hearing protection because the of the low altitude of the flight — 1,500 feet.

“The SCA and Endeavour will take off from Dryden and perform a low-level flyover of Northern California, passing near NASA’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and various landmarks in multiple cities, including San Francisco and Sacramento,” says a press release from NASA Ames.

“Some planned flyovers or stopovers could be delayed or canceled,” warns the NASA Ames Facebook page.

Updates on the event can be found on this NASA Ames web page.