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
the astronauts, somebody in the press corps coughed and they said, not around my astronauts. and you know, brooke, at one point before they all got together there, the president met with mark kelly separately and then he and the first lady and commander kelly walked down a corridor and went into another room where gabrielle giffords was. mark kelly briefing them on his wife s condition. four months ago she was almost killed in arizona in the shooting. and they also had a chance to go over to the orbiter processing facility and spent some time there, the first family, looking@lan tis and getting an up close look there. it will be the final shuttle flight, either around the late june time frame.
checkout building. so that they could, you know, take the suits off, and sit around like we are and wait until necessary is a makes a determination as to exactly to when they will fly. i know that, brooke, the president is still here. he landed about 20 minutes ago, he and his family are touring one of the orbiter processing facilities, inside there getting a look at the shuttle atlantis. brooke? that is right the tour went on with the president and the first family. thank you, john zarrella. we will check back with you. and meanwhile, the doctors in houston handling congresswoman giffords rehab, and they cleared for her to travel to florida from houston for the launch, and now with the delay, what does that mean? can giffords continue the rehab there in florida or does she have to return to houston before endeavour takes off? chief medical crespondent dr. sanjay gupta has been in touch along with the team with her