Falling From the Sky

After Hurricane Ike, the evening of November 20 marked the first snow that Houston has seen in years. The white stuff first appeared around 8 PM. Looking out one's window into the darkness, it takes a moment to recognise snow. By 9 PM snow was falling in flurries and children were out making snowmen.

The next morning Johnson Space Center was covered in a white blanket. By lunchtime the snow had melted away and workers were outside waiting for something else to fall from the sky. The Space Shuttle endeavour was travelling back to Florida friom California. This journey takes several days on the back of a 747. After spending a night in El Paso, the Shuttle and 747 made a detour to flyby JSC.

The Shuttle era is scheduled to end in 2010. Our extra flight for the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer may push that date into 2011. Like snow, nothing lasts forever.