sjb (07/04/82)
The Columbia sailed in to a perfect landing just a few minutes ago on runway 22, the concrete runway at EAFB. Unofficial flight time was 7 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes, and 40 seconds. In about 30 minutes, Reagan will greet the astronauts as they come out of the ship and after that, he will deliver his speech. When that is over, the Challenger will take off for KSC, but before it clears EAFB air space, the 747 it is attached to will perform some turns and other maneuvers for the President.
sjb (11/16/82)
(Sorry this is a bit late) The Columbia touched down to yet another picture perfect landing today half a minute early, at 0633 EST. Weather conditions were less than ideal, with a heavy cloud cover, but Vance Brand put the Columbia down right on the center line on runway 22 at EAFB. NASA plans to ferry Columbia back to KSC next week, and then it will face a 10 month overhaul, providing space for Spacelab and taking out some of the bulky test flight equipment. Also next week, Challenger is scheduled to move to the VAB. NASA has rescheduled STS-5's canceled space walk until STS-6 or STS-7, aboard the Challenger.
alb@alice.UUCP (09/05/83)
Right on time, at 0340 EDT this morning, the Challenger made a picture perfect landing at EAFB. Just before landing, coverage of the shuttle was picked up with infrared cameras, and we were shown those pictures for the first time. Real images were attained just a few seconds before the actual touchdown. If only the anchorpeople would shut up, if only when the mission control people were talking...