Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!syntron!jtsv16!uunet!ubvax!ames!mike
From: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Mike Smithwick)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: shuttle landing sites
Message-ID: <16439@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 13 Oct 88 00:42:49 GMT
Article-I.D.: ames.16439
References: <15991@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <6400010@cpe> <1988Oct10.224026.12802@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Mike Smithwick)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 42

In article <1988Oct10.224026.12802@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>In article <6400010@cpe> tif@cpe.UUCP writes:
>>I thought they didn't have to land in california anymore.  Was this
>>for extra safety on this second "first" flight?  Were there weather
>>problems forcing the landing in california?  Did I miss an announced
>>explanation?  Am I completely mistaken?
>
>Edwards is officially the primary landing site for the shuttle now.
>KSC is third or fourth on the list. 

[deleted stuff about lousy KSC weather]

>The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
>the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

Perhaps the most important reason however is that the KSC runway is too
short and too narrow to ensure safe landings. Landings must be deadly
accurate, otherwise they'll run off the end of the runway. This is
especially important in the case of an emergency RTLS ("return to 
launch site") landing when the astros are dealing with a loaded shuttle
(full payload bay). In fact, the recent tightened safty requirements
lowered payload capacity in the case of an aborted landing.

A couple of years ago, John Young said flat out, if he had his way,
no shuttle would ever land at KSC, it's just too dangerous.

So the Cape will just have to serve as a backup landing site and nothing
else.

A couple of years ago, I got to sit in the pilots seat of our shuttle
simulator while astronaut Tom Hendricks shot some landings in the commanders 
seat. "We" landed at the Dakar transatlantic Abort site, with a full
bird. And out of two hours worth of landings, we ran off the end of
the runway and into the drink nearly every time. This is why NASA is 
considering putting nets at the end of these sites to catch the thing if it
goes too far.


-- 
			   *** mike (starship janitor) smithwick ***
"he's braindead Jim. . ."
[disclaimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]