Thanks to the weather Southern California will get to see the space shuttle land.

After days of uncooperative weather Mission Control has decided to move the scheduled space shuttle landing from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley.

Mission STS-128 and its crew will complete their two week journey today and is expected to start what is known as a deorbit burn at 4:47 p.m. If everything goes according to plan the shuttle will land on the runway at 5:53 P.M.

Another opportunity for reentry will come again at 6:23 p.m. with touchdown expected at 7:28 p.m.

For crew member Tim Kopra today’s landing will end his 58 day journey in space.  Kopra launched on shuttle mission STS-127 in July and spent two weeks on the International Space Station before returning with the current crew.

As the shuttle enters the atmosphere it will create a sonic boom that can generally be heard throughout the surrounding area.

The boom is caused by the shuttle entering the atmosphere faster then the speed of sound, which is typically 700 miles-per-hour.

For a layout of the flight path the shuttle will take click here.