Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: When does the official name change? Message-ID: <1989Nov23.164417.27352@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <7036@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <2394@cbnewsj.ATT.COM> <1989Nov21.051136.18065@utzoo.uucp> <5315@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> Date: Thu, 23 Nov 89 16:44:17 GMT In article <5315@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> bruno@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (Bruce W. Mohler) writes: > > ... Edwards is the > > primary landing site for the foreseeable future. > >Why don't they launch from Edwards as well then? Life would be simpler if they could. Apart from historical complications (all the heavy launch facilities are at KSC), the problem is that the range- safety people want to see several hundred kilometers, at least, of ocean or uninhabited land downrange of a launch site. Edwards and related sites simply can't meet that requirement. That's why missile testing moved from White Sands (in New Mexico) to Cape Canaveral in the first place. NASA considered various other sites when deciding where the heavy-launch base for spaceflight should be, but the physics of the situation make it very desirable to launch eastward from as near the equator as possible, and the Cape already had a lot of the infrastructure needed. -- A bit of tolerance is worth a | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology megabyte of flaming. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu