Space Shuttle Collumbia to pass over local area during re-entry saturday mornin

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. – The Space Shuttle Columbia will fly over south Mississippi and Louisiana early Saturday morning Feb. 1, 2003, as it prepares for landing at the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida. The high-speed re-entry of Columbia may also create a sonic boom that will be heard throughout the area. 

Columbia, carrying the astronaut crew of STS-107, launched from Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 16. Highlights of the mission included a variety of significant microgravity and space science research projects.

The Space Shuttle will cross the horizon at approximately 7:59 a.m. and appear out of the west-northwest, traveling in a southeast direction.  The best viewing will occur at 8:02 a.m., as the shuttle moves across the sky with a maximum elevation of 41 degrees above the horizon. There is a
remote possibility that the sky may be too light for the shuttle to be visible to the public, and the sonic boom will be heard approximately three minutes after this sighting. The shuttle will land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 8:16 a.m. CST.