[net.columbia] Shuttle Landing

sjb (08/08/82)

The new director of the STS program, Thomas E. Utsman, said yesterday
that the shuttle would probably not land at KSC until STS-7, now 
scheduled for April, 1983.  He said that everyone would like to go
with KSC starting with STS-5, but ``we don't want to get caught in
the euphoria and do something foolish with a national resource.''

stan (11/17/82)

Last night on the news, they said that the shuttle used 2/3 of the paved
runway before coming to a complete stop.  How long is the runway?

Evidently Nasa would like a crosswind landing as soon as possible.  Is this
to test out the craft's airworthiness??

Also, will this newsgroup be named net.columbia forever, even though
Columbia will not fly for another year?  How about net.shuttle?

								Stan King

sjb (11/18/82)

The crosswinds test is merely to see how the shuttle, which
has no power on landing, handles when landing in crosswinds,
which prevail at the strip at KSC, where NASA would eventually
like to land shuttle missions.

As for net.columbia, we have been over this many times before,
and the consensus was not to change it but to stay with
net.columbia for reasons of sanity and to honor out first
space shuttle.

whaley (11/18/82)

#R:floyd:-83700:uiucdcs:8500003:000:230
uiucdcs!whaley    Nov 18 11:12:00 1982

I'm confused.  I thought I heard some mention of taking off
from Vandenburg to enable polar orbits.  Now you mention landing
at KSC.  I'm wondering if 747 piggyback rides are to be a frequent
permanent part of shuttle operations.

stocker (11/19/82)

Yes, piggyback rides will be around for some time to come.  NASA/Rockwell
at one time cosidered a jet engine assembly to be a part of the area around
the OMS pods on the orbiter, but the weight was just too much to allow.

dave
pur-ee!stocker

csc (11/19/82)

Our *first* shuttle was the Enterprise
-jan   ...watmath!csc

steve (04/11/83)

The landing on Saturday was something to see!!!!!!!!!!!!
The biggest problem was leaving!!!
+3 hours to get out of the parking area....arrrgghhhhh!!!!!!

	bmcg!steve

ps. Thanks to all who keep us posted on the activities of NASA and the shuttle.
pps. Read the article on "The Space Initiative" in net.space.

alb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (04/20/85)

The Discovery landed today, one orbit late, and suffered
a blown right outboard tire and damage to a wing.  The
tire blew shortly after touchdown, but in no way jeopardized
the landing; in fact, the shuttle maintained the center
line the entire time.  Engineers also found that two tiles
were missing from a wing, and a hole had been burnt into
the wing structure where it was unguarded.  NASA has yet
to assess the damage.