giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (04/20/84)
During the approach for the first (and only) KSC landing, the ground track of the shuttle passed directly over Orlando International Airport. I should mention that this should be a relatively rare occurance; those ground tracks covered nearly all of Central Florida when the paper publishes them in case of an (emergency) landing at KSC. For those unfamiliar with Central Florida, OIA (MCO on tags) has two 15000 foot ex-military runways and is less than 50 miles from KSC. Yet, when the shuttle passed overhead, I recall it was at something like 60,000 feet! The airspace controllers generously gave up 3000 ft of their own airspace, lowering the ceiling for all flights thoughout Central Florida to 30,000 feet, so you can see that there was no real effect from the shuttle. As to the sonic booms, that may become a problem. I know several people who were awaken by the shuttle passing overhead, and I could imagine an aircraft at half the distance could be in for a surprise. But, nothing has been mentioned here, despite generally good coverage as a local event. ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816
wm@tekchips.UUCP (Wm Leler) (04/20/84)
Well, shouldn't that be Orlando Intergalactic Airport, then?
Wm Leler 503/627-5151
wm.Tektronix@csnet-relay
{ucbvax|allegra|decvax|ihnp4}!tektronix!wmalb@alice.UUCP (Adam L. Buchsbaum) (04/21/84)
As an interesting aside: If the shuttle were not able to land at KSC after completing its deorbit burn (for such a catastrophe as an accident on the runway (weather and chase planes taking off and landing) leaving debris that would not be cleared), it would land at none other than Orlando International Airport. As a matter of fact, the shuttle can land at any airport with a runway of 15,000 feet or more.
giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (04/21/84)
Talking of catastrophes, it could also land at McDill Air Force Base or Tampa International in the Tampa Bay area, or possibly Patrick Air Force Base just to the south of KSC. But the last I heard, NASA was not considering either Orlando or Tampa Internationals for their list of standard continengcy landing sites because they decided that if the shuttle could make it to Florida it could make it to KSC. Doesn't make sense to me either. ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816
thor@ihuxw.UUCP (Mark Kohls ) (04/23/84)
++++++ Maybe we could even land it on that strip in Grenada. Mark Kohls ihuxw!thor
eder@ssc-vax.UUCP (Dani Eder) (04/25/84)
25 April 1984
I'm looking at a copy of the approach and landing charts the astronauts
use during Shuttle returns. It identifies all the possible landing sites for
the Orbiter. In addition to KSC runway 33, which is the normal landing site,
the following are identified in the vicinity of KSC:
A 10000 foot skid strip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (adjacent to the
Kennedy Space Center)
Orlando International
MacDill Air Force Base near St. Petersburg, Fl
Cecil Field Naval Air Station, near Jacksonville, FL
Tyndall Air Force Base, Panama City Fl
Elgin Air Force Base, Pensacola, Fl
The last two mentioned are about 300 nautical miles from KSC, the rest are
within about 120 nautical miles.
Dani Eder
Boeing Aerospace Comapny
ssc-vax!eder