[As you might have been able to guess, access to the Internet can get spotty as you’re hopping from airfield to airfield all across the country. This is the first of two posts I wrote along the way, but wasn’t able to post.]

All together we've got four NASA pilots flying the SCA 747 this time; Charlie Justiz, Frank Marlow, Jack Nickel and SCA Chief Pilot, Jeff Moultrie. These guys are former military aviators and are based out of Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. (We also have one more SCA pilot, Bill Brocket, who's based out of Dryden. He wasn't able to make this trip.) Together, these four have logged a whole lot of hours of flight time in everything from shuttle training planes to T-38 jets to the Super Guppy. They definitely know what they're doing.

I found out that the number of SCA refueling stops, like this one at Lackland, depends on the weight of the orbiter on top and the weather along the way, but the carrier must stop to refuel at least once on its trip to Kennedy. During a normal flight, the 747 can use 20,000 pounds of fuel an hour. With Atlantis on its back, the SCA uses twice as much!

While we had some time here in San Antonio, I had a chat with NASA pilot, Charlie Justiz. I wanted to hear what he had to say about what it takes to fly a 747 with a shuttle strapped to your back.

Here's a piece of my conversation with Charlie.

[As you might have been able to guess, access to the Internet can get spotty as you’re hopping from airfield to airfield all across the country. This is the second of two posts I wrote along the way, but wasn't able to post.]

Southerners sure know how to make a shuttle team feel appreciated.

We made our final fuel stop of the trip at Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi. We arrived here to a very warm reception. As we were landing I looked out the window of the C-9 and saw a long line of cars parked along the road with people waiting to see Atlantis come in. They tell me that some of the people were even tailgating! That's the way to do it right.

Here is some video of the SCA and Atlantis landing at Columbus.

The Columbus team was ready for us with a security team…

Firefighters…

 And of course, fuel trucks.

As soon as the SCA was stopped and secured I decided I needed to get as close up as I could. I saw reporters and news cameras standing back in the media section and I kind of laughed because I knew you guys we're going to get a better view than they were. I gave a quick walk around the SCA and then I even got to sneak up into the cabin to have a look at the inside.

Here's the video of the SCA walkaround.

We should be leaving Columbus at about 3:40 pm CDT and arrive at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC at around 6:30 pm EDT. They are telling me that if weather permits, the SCA and Atlantis will do a fly-by of the beach.

On to the Sunshine State!

Well, we made it. Atlantis landed here at the Shuttle Landing Facility at KSC. The official landing time was 6:53 pm EDT. Check out this video of the landing.

The trip was a blast, but it is great to see Atlantis safe and sound at home here in Florida.

Even though the trip is over, the blog's not done yet. I got some great video and pictures from our stop in Mississippi. I actually took a quick tour of the SCA and snuck a picture of me in the pilot's seat. I'll have those up as soon as possible.

Check back later for the last few updates.

The Atlantis Ferry Flight will depart Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi at approximately 3:40 pm CDT and arrive at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center at approximately 6:30 pm EDT. Pilots will do a fly-by of the beach if weather permits.
 
Earlier this afternoon, a huge crowd of well-wishers gathered at Columbus to welcome Atlantis when it landed en route from San Antonio. The stop in Mississippi allowed refueling and a weather briefing before resuming the trip to Florida.
 
Stay tuned -- recap photos and videos are on the way after Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center!

Space shuttle Atlantis is on its way to its second stop today in its cross-country ferry flight, Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.

Atlantis and its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft departed Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas at about 12:37 p.m. EDT (11:37 a.m. CDT). The flight is expected to take about two hours.

Once Atlantis gets to Columbus Air Force Base managers will assess the weather and determine what the best route is to arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida this evening.

We just landed here at Lackland Air Force Base's Kelly Field. I scrambled off the C-9 and made it out on the runway in time see Atlantis/SCA’s second Texas landing. We'll have video soon!

The 37th Training Wing here at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, is the largest training wing in the Air Force. Kelly Field is the longest continually used runway in the Air Force (since 1917) and population wise is the largest Air Force base in the United States.
Ben, our photographer caught this cool shot of Lackland AFB 2nd Lieutenant, Natassia Cherne taking a moment after the landing.

We'll refuel here, take a minute for lunch and to get one last check of the weather forecasts and then be on our way to Mississippi.

Oh, and I've noticed in the comments several people are asking about why it is that the orbiter can’t fly in the rain since it's not a problem if the orbiter gets rained on when it's sitting on the launch pad. The answer is that the rain hits the orbiter's tiles a lot harder when we're flying over 300 mph than it does at the pad. At those speeds the rain would be like a shotgun blast to the tiles. (Have you ever held your hand outside your car window when you're driving through a rainstorm?)

We're sitting on the C-9 here at Biggs and the engines are humming. We're a few minutes away from take off, heading to Kelly Field at Lackland, near San Antonio, Texas. We should get in there at about 9:00 local time. Yep, Texas is really so big that we need two stops to get across it.

We'll get fuel at Kelly and then continue on to Columbus Air Force Base in Columbus, Mississippi. It looks like we’ll get there at about 1:00 CST.

So here is the schedule so far:

Biggs (El Paso, TX)       Leave: 6:15 am local time
Kelly (San Antonio, TX)   Arrive: 9:00 am local time, Leave: 11:00 am local time
Columbus (Columbus, MS)   Arrive: 1:00 pm local time

Hope that helps. I'll update it if we get new info.
     
Here's a shot of Atlantis and the SCA getting ready to roll out behind us.

I "borrowed" a bunch of pictures from our NASA photographer, Ben Smegelsky so throughout the day I’m going to go back and snap them to previous posts. Some of them are pretty nice so you may want to go back and check them out.