He also got a peek at the NASA engine shop, shuttlelanding facility and control tower, vehicle assembly building, and mobile launch platforms, as well as several other difficult-to-remember locales.
The official said that while the president was receiving his usual intelligence briefing, Card was watching NASA Television, awaiting the shuttlelanding, when he saw that NASA had lost contact with Columbia.
Unsettled weather at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida prompted NASA to call off today's planned landing, and the shuttle's orbit will not allow another landing attempt in Florida until tomorrow morning.