Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!orion.cf.uci.edu!dkrause
From: dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu (Doug Krause)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: shuttle landing sites
Message-ID: <1144@orion.cf.uci.edu>
Date: 1 Nov 88 12:18:58 GMT
References: <2137@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu> <5590@ecsvax.uncecs.edu> <794@hadron.UUCP> <5157@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <2349@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Reply-To: dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu (Doug Krause)
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Lines: 21

In article <2349@ssc-vax.UUCP> adolph@ssc-vax.UUCP (Mark C. Adolph) writes:
>In article <5157@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>, steve@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (Steve DeJarnett) writes:
>> 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.  
>
>Does a fully laden shuttle really weigh more than a 747-400 loaded with
>~550 passengers and their vacation souvenirs?

I can't quote weights of either craft, but I know that if a 747 going
out of LAX has to abort the flight, it has to dump most of it's fuel
into the Pacific before returning to land.  Now I don't know if the
weak part is the landing gear or the runway, but a loaded 747 is ob-
viously VERY heavy.

Douglas Krause             "East is east... let's keep it that way."
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