shuttle. we are now less than one hour away from the final space shuttle landing. just in the last half-hour, we got a go for landing from nasa. the deorbit burn took place in the last couple of minutes. in the burn, the shuttle s engines are fired to help it slow down before it hits the atmosphere. in less than 30 minutes the shuttle and crew will start to feel the effects of the atmosphere. they ll be about 80 miles above the earth at that point. as the shuttle comes through the atmosphere, it heats up to about 5,000 degrees on the outside. when it breaks through the atmosphere, many of the folks in florida will hear those famous son iic booms. about five minutes before the landing, the commander will take manual control of the shuttle and pilot it to the grounds. when the orbiter hits the runway, it will be going 220 miles an hour. the shuttle will land for the last time ever at 5:56 a.m. eastern time. and just so you know, nasa is considering this a night landing. the lan