Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!umich!dgsi!gregc
From: gregc@cimage.com (Greg Cronau)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Shuttle question
Message-ID: <1990Nov26.031859.6166@cimage.com>
Date: 26 Nov 90 03:18:59 GMT
References: <20489.273935bf@merrimack.edu> <1990Nov19.140100@alazif.cxo.dec.com> <3795@cuisun.unige.ch> <40040@ut-emx.uucp>
Reply-To: gregc@dgsi.UUCP (Greg Cronau/10000)
Organization: Cimage Corp, Ann Arbor, MI
Lines: 45

In article <40040@ut-emx.uucp> aoab314@ut-emx.uucp (Srinivas Bettadpur) writes:
>In article <3795@cuisun.unige.ch> vp@cui.unige.ch (Vassilis Prevelakis) writes:
>>In article <1990Nov19.140100@alazif.cxo.dec.com> wherry@alazif.enet.dec.com writes:
>>>>This may sound like a stupid question, but has there ever been two shuttles in
>>>>orbit at the same time?
>>>
>>>No. JSC is not equipped to handle the telemetry from two oribters at once. 
>>Eh?  Mission control is in Houston TX.  JSC has LAUNCH CONTROL ROOMS
>>and it has three of them.  Control is passed over to Houston shortly
>>after launch.
>>I am not sure how many mission control rooms are in Houston though.
>
>  To add my two cents worth, I thought they were talking about JSC
>when they mentioned Houston.  Or should the sentence read
>  '  "KSC" has LAUNCH CONTROL ROOMS ... '
>
>Anyway, that brings me to my next question.  Would some kind soul 
>provide some info on the selection of alternative landing sites for
>the shuttle ?  Somehow, I never knew Florida was an alternative.
>Don't they need stupendous ground facilities (like a huge runway
>and so on) for the shuttle to be able land there ?
>Thanks, in advance
>Srinivas Bettadpur

So let me add my two cents worth:
I had been under the impression that:
    1.) Launches were handled by KSC(the Kennedy Space Center) in Florida. As
soon as the vehicle cleared the launch tower, control was handed over to..
    2.) Mission control at JSC(the Johnson Space Center) in Houston Texas.
If I've got that wrong, please tell me when this was changed.

As far as landing in Florida:
    The shuttles were intended to *always* land in Florida. Edwards was for
initial tests and as a backup location. A special (stupendous) runway was
built for shuttle landings. It was intended as the primary landing facility,
and as the landing point in case of an abort-to-KSC. It is at least 15,000'
long and I believe 2-3 times as wide as a regular runway. Landing the shuttles
at KSC eliminates the time consuming, costly, and risky job of mounting the
shuttle on the 747 and flying it back to KSC.
	Unfortunately, the winds off of the ocean at KSC turned out to be fairly
tricky and unpredictible. I've heard that most of the astronauts would rather
*not* land at KSC. Edwards appears to have become the defacto primary landing
site because of it's better weather. (most of the time. :-) )

gregc@cimage.com