Why does the shuttle take off from Florida and land in Houston? Why not take off from Houston and land there?
2007-02-08 14:34:28 · 9 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The shuttle takes off from Florida because there is no land to cross prior to getting on orbit. The solid boosters are recycled and must land in water to be recovered undamaged. Also Florida is slightly further south, so it gets slightly more of a velocity boost from the rotation of the earth.
As far as landing in Houston, several airports and Air Force bases are nearby, and some could support the landing of the shuttle, given sufficient prior warning.
Now...to reverse the question: why is the Manned Spaceflight Center in Texas rather than in Florida? Politics is the main reason. The center was built in the 1960's when Lyndon B. Johnson was Vice President, and Johnson was a big proponent of the space program. Thus, when a site was selected Texas and Galveston (the center is closer to Galveston, Tx than Houston) was chosen...so politics played a major role. Incidentally, the acreage for the MSFC was donated by Rice University.
2007-02-08 14:52:13 · answer #1 · answered by David A 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Shuttle does not land in Houston. It lands either in Florida or in California.
Florida because it is close (so that avoids a ferry flight on the back of the 747 carrier plane, which adds its own delay in the preparation of the shuttle for its next flight); and California because it has those very long runways (Edwards Air Force Base) in the dry lake, which were used from the start and exclusively until the concrete runway was built in Florida.
As to why the shuttle takes off from Florida, it is a safety consideration. The shuttle and all rockets take off towards the east to take advantage of the rotation of the earth, and by taking off from Florida's east coast, they first overfly ocean. Launching from Houston would mean flying pretty close to the coast of Louisiana and overflying Florida later, with the risks of the solid rocket boosters hitting oil platform, or coming down on land, not to mention the risk in case a rocket fails and crash.
Houston has the training facilities and the mission control, but no rocket launch or landing facilities.
2007-02-08 14:48:38 · answer #2 · answered by Vincent G 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The shuttle does not land in Houston. Its normal landing site is at KSC in Florida, with alternate sites at Edwards AFB in California and White Sands New Mexico. There are also emergency landing sites in Spain and Italy. Houston is the operation center for the shuttle after is launched, in which control is handed off from Florida immediately after launch.
The shuttle launches from Florida as not to put the vehicle over populated area in case of a vehicle failure (as with Challenger). It was once considered to be launched from Vandenburg AFB in California as well, but it never came to be (the shuttle could have been used for polar orbital missions that way).
2007-02-08 14:47:05 · answer #3 · answered by Shaula 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, their is a number of destinations where a shuttle can land and take off. They have destinations in New Mexico, California, Florida and Houston. I guess that it was a clear day in Houston to land and all shuttles take off in Florida.
If their is something misleading in this answer, I usually focus on cosmology and not the actual space exploration physically.
2007-02-08 16:30:11 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Houston is where mission control is. They prefer to take off and land in Florida. It is very expensive to transport the shuttle back to Florida after it lands elsewhere. The most used back up site is Edwards Air force base in California. I believe it landed in new Mexico once though.
2007-02-08 14:47:00 · answer #5 · answered by Emmett 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Shuttle doesn't land in Houston--it lands in Florida where it takes off. Rarely, if weatherconditions are bad, it has landed in California.
Houston is where NASA has its central facility for monitoring and managing spaceflights--but the actual flight operations are all in Floridaa at Cape canaveral's Kennnedy Space Cener.
2007-02-08 14:58:03 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the guy that owns the company that overbills our government would put a hit out on anyone who would dare to question the less than prudent business practice. So enjoy your freedom and just remember that there are much larger sums of money being stolen as we speak freely about it in our great land of free speech and liberty for all who win the no bid contracts and payoff our great leaders.
2007-02-08 17:18:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Believe it or not, the farther south you are, (closer to the equater) the easier it is to get into orbit. It also takes less energy to do so.
2007-02-08 14:44:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why isn't the world flat?
2007-02-08 14:40:32 · answer #9 · answered by Andreas 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋