RedSky - 20/12/2006 8:50 PMSo what is there that qualifies it as a "space harbor"?
The runways include all landing aids necessary for a Shuttle landing, including the Microwave Scan Beam Landing System (MSBLS). Crash and rescue emergency personnel are provided for practice sessions and for any landings by nearby Holloman Air Force Base. The runways at the Space Harbor are completely lit with Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) lights; distance-to-go lights; strobe lights; reflectors; and xenon spotlights that total more than 11 billion candlepower.
FLIGHT RULE VIOLATIONS: KSC ... CIG/PRECIP EDW ... XWIND NOR ... NONE
Entry Weather - The Spaceflight Meteorology Group and the Entry Team continues tomonitor the weather and associated forecasting models. Overall, the weather forecast hasnot changed significantly since yesterday. Both KSC and EDW continue to have marginalforecasts for EOM. For KSC, there is a chance of rainshowers and broken clouds at 5000feet. At Edwards the crosswinds (310/12G18) are forecast to be out of limits, gusting to 18knots although the EDW winds might swing to the west and decrease as the day progressessuch that the second EDW rev may be better. NOR weather is GO for a landing on EOM.There was 0.16 inches of rain at NOR on FD 11 but the lakebed remains green and therunways are in good condition.Northrup Landing - KSC is making plans to send additional GSE and personnel to NORprior to FD14 (EOM) landing opportunities. At NOR, the ground team is planning to openthe hatch, per nominal KSC/EDW ops, but there is no crew transport vehicle. There will bea stairway truck with a small white room at the top. The current plan is to tow off the runwayas soon as possible in order to get Discovery to power and purge units which will bestationed at the staging area.
martynwilliams - 21/12/2006 11:43 AMIt’s actually quite surprising that the SSP would face these difficulties at, what is the 2nd back-up landing site. What would happen if a vehicle had to land at one of the TAL sites, or another contingency abort site? If one of the vehicles landed up in Spain or France – and if it takes circa 45 days for a turnaround at what is a CONUS site – then who knows how things would pan out with a TAL landing.
joncz - 21/12/2006 5:12 PMQuotemartynwilliams - 21/12/2006 11:43 AMIt’s actually quite surprising that the SSP would face these difficulties at, what is the 2nd back-up landing site. What would happen if a vehicle had to land at one of the TAL sites, or another contingency abort site? If one of the vehicles landed up in Spain or France – and if it takes circa 45 days for a turnaround at what is a CONUS site – then who knows how things would pan out with a TAL landing.I would hazard a guess that if the shuttle had to make an intact abort to a TAL site, the standdown would be much longer than 45 days... and would likely be an end of program event.
Nassau International Airport, Bahamas
Gary - 21/12/2006 5:23 PMAlso, NASA can get resources on site fairly quickly plus I imagine that there are a few staff who have emergency training just in case of a TAL or other problem requiring an emergency landing. Probably more so at Moron and Istres than Fairford.
joncz - 21/12/2006 11:12 AMQuotemartynwilliams - 21/12/2006 11:43 AMIt’s actually quite surprising that the SSP would face these difficulties at, what is the 2nd back-up landing site. What would happen if a vehicle had to land at one of the TAL sites, or another contingency abort site? If one of the vehicles landed up in Spain or France – and if it takes circa 45 days for a turnaround at what is a CONUS site – then who knows how things would pan out with a TAL landing.I would hazard a guess that if the shuttle had to make an intact abort to a TAL site, the standdown would be much longer than 45 days... and would likely be an end of program event.
shuttlefan - 21/12/2006 10:50 AMWhy do you believe it would be an end-of-program event?
jimvela - 21/12/2006 1:00 PMAny event on ascent that caused an abort to an emergency landing site would be a program-ending event. The program cannot survive the loss of another vehicle, nor another 2+ year return-to-flight program to fix whatever went wrong to cause the in-flight abort. Most of the scenarios I can think of that would result in an abort during ascent carry high probability of loss of vehicle/loss of crew.
simcosmos - 21/12/2006 5:56 PMJust a small side note but (and only talking about what concerns me) Azores (in the above landing sites) is also Portugal / Europe António
hutchel - 21/12/2006 2:24 PMI can just see the return trip to KSC - Maybe strapped to the deck of an Aircraft Carrier? Certainly the 747 can't carry enough gas to shuttle it.
martynwilliams - 21/12/2006 5:26 PMI’m not sure if it’s still active, but I have the patch of the “RAF Fairford Space Shuttle Support Team”
