landing sites for space shuttle?

Question

My friend says that in the early days, the shuttle landed out west. I say that that the cape here in Fl. has always been the primary, the one out west are only if the weather is bad here and can't wait any longer due to consumables etc, Who is right?

Answer 1

The only places the shuttle has landed are:

Edwards AFB, CA
Kennedy Space Center, FL
White Sands Space Harbor, NM

Backup landing sites are:

Base Aerienne, Ben Guerir, Morocco
Moron, AB, Spain
Yundum Airport, Banjul, The Gambia
Zaragoza AB, Spain
Amberley, Australia
Anderson AFB, Guam
Amilear Cabral, Cape Berde
Hickam AFB, HI
Arlanda, Sweden
Darwin, Australia
Myrtle Beach, SC
Dyess AFB, TX
MCAS Cherry Point, NC
Ellsworth AFB, SD
NAS Oceana, Virginia Beach, VA
Esenboga, Turkey
Dover AFB, DE
Gran Canaria (Las Palmas), Canary Islands
Otis ANGB, MA
Grant County (Moses Lake), WA
Pease ANGB, NH
Hao, French Polynesia
NAS Bermuda
Hoedspruit, South Africa
King Khalid, Saudi Arabia
Kinshasa, Zaire
Koln/ Bonn, Germany
Lajes Field, Azores
Lincoln Municipal, NE
Mountain Home AFB, ID
Nassau, Bahamas
NSA Souda Bay, Crete
NSF Diego Garcia, Chagos Archipelago, Indian Ocean
Orlando IAP, FL
RAF Fairford, United Kingdom
Roberts International (Monrovia), Liberia
Tamanrassett, Algeria

Answer 2

In the early days of the space shuttle (Space Transportation System, STS for short, the official name) landed @ Edwards AFB in California. The runway @ Kennedy Sapce Center, Cape Canaveral, FL wasn't built until later (after Challenger exploded, if I recall correctly). Your friend is correct, although, now the primary (or preferred) site is @ the Cape. Edwards AFB & the other sites are backups if for some reason, the shuttle cannot land @ the Cape, for example, the recent spate of bad weather! Another reason the Cape is preferred is, of course, the time, hassle & expense of moving the shuttle (which uses a modified Boeing 747!)

Answer 3

The Space Shuttle will always land when possible at Kennedy Space Center because it's the cheapest place to land. However, if for some reason it can't, it has other possible landing sites, like Edwards Airforce Base, which was the primary shuttle landing site until 1991. And the shuttle has landed there as recently as 2005. The shuttle has also landed at White Sands in New Mexico at least once.

Answer 4

Your friend is right.

The primary landing site for the first shuttle flight flight was Edwards Air Force base in California, even though the runway in Florida was ready and the weather was clear.

In fact, the primary landing site for first nine flights was Edwards because they were not sure they could land accurately enough and wanted the 44 square miles of clear, flat area instead of a "little" 3 mile long runway as the landing target. After they proved they could land on the intended spot every time, they switched the primary landing site to be Florida.

Answer 5

As others above said, we launch from the east coast in case there is an accident. Also, it is logical to land at the same place you launch from so you don't have to cart the shuttle back home - although there are alternate landing sites (CA for one) in case the weather is continuously bad in FL. More stable weather? Well, staying on the east coast the weather doesn't get much nicer, and the farther north you go the colder it gets, and we've seen the unfortunate consequences when the shuttle launches when it's too cold (the Challenger tragedy). In the 60s (50s?) when the Kennedy Space Center was built there weren't too many people living in that part of Florida, so that's another factor. I'll bet the fact that Florida is so flat played a role in the decision, too. Also, at that time in America's history the south was desperate for jobs, so the location of several NASA centers in the south had political and economic incentives. Doh! I forgot about the closer to the equator part, too!

Answer 6

Florida is the primary site, Edwards AFB the 2nd; White Sands in N.M. the backup.

It takes more time and money to haul the shuttle back from the western sites. This last time they were gearing up for White Sands, ready to send dozens of technicians and equipment to assemble the hoist to load the shuttle for transport. Since NASA has an ambitious schedule in 2007, it would have put them behind, but they were running low on fuel and weather conditions at the other 2 sites were poor. They got lucky and caught a break in the weather in Florida.

Answer 7

You lose. The shuttle always landed at Edwards in the early days until they were confident enough to use the shorter runway at Canaveral. The Edwards runway is 14 miles long, so they had plenty to play with. The shuttle also landed once in White Sands, but the grit got in everything, the shuttle came in too fast because of the thin air and it took them months to get the equipment in to get it out of there.