Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!elroy!aero!sm.unisys.com!csun!polyslo!steve
From: steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: shuttle landing sites
Message-ID: <5157@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Date: 28 Oct 88 23:24:50 GMT
References: <2137@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> <5590@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <794@hadron.UUCP> <7225@dasys1.UUCP> <370@gronk.UUCP>
Reply-To: steve@polyslo.UUCP (Steve DeJarnett)
Organization: Lab Rat Rumpus Room -- Cal Poly SLO
Lines: 31

In article <370@gronk.UUCP> johnl@gronk.UUCP (John Limpert) writes:
>In article <7225@dasys1.UUCP> axelson@dasys1.UUCP (Kevin Axelson) writes:
>>In article <794@hadron.UUCP>, klr@hadron.UUCP (Kurt L. Reisler) writes:
>>> ... I have heard tales that Dullas is large enough (long enough in
>>> the runway department) to serve as an emergency landing site.  However,
>>> the location is wrong.
>
>The runways at Dulles are long, 10,000 feet if I remember correctly.

	And the runways at LAX are (well, at least one of them is) 11,000+
feet long.  That alone doesn't qualify it to be a shuttle landing site.  As
I recall (this is a LONG time back, so I could be wrong), the runway at
KSC is reenforced a LOT to support the shuttle weight.  Although I would 
guess that the shuttle landing empty would be light enough for most 
commercial airport runways, I'm not sure what the weight of a fully laden
shuttle would be, and whether these runways could support the load.  There
is also the question of population around an airport (as I recall, Dulles is
pretty isolated (relatively), but it is still something to consider).  
Military bases are generally more isolated, better equipped to handle a
shuttle landings (how many commercial airports have shuttle lifting equipment
(of course, MOST military bases don't either)??).

	Length is NOT the only prerequisite for landing something (a shuttle)
somewhere.  

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