The space shuttle was a spacecraft system used by NASA between 1981 and 2011. U.S. He built five full space shuttle orbiter vehicles during those years and operated 135 missions starting from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But, it was one thing to lift, and another to swim on the ground.
Here we take a look at what the space shuttlebitter was and some of the airports where it could land. Please note that this is not a complete list, but it does highlight some of the key landing points for the ship.
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What was a space shuttle orbiter?
The space shuttle had many components. One of them was the space shuttlebiter, a reusable orbital spacecraft that estimated the entire system since its first flight in 1977. The world. The Queen of the Sky has a long history of helping with NASA tasks.
NASA created five bitbiters: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor. We all know about the Challenger and Columbia disasters of 1986 and 2003. The remaining three completed the final flight between March and July 2011.
The five orbiters had a fuselage and two double delta winged aircraft-like designs. They measured about 37.1 m (122 ft.) And had wingspan of 23.8 m (78 ft).
As NASA said about the space shuttle orbiter,
“The shuttle was able to launch like a rocket, penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere like a capsule and fly like a glider for a runway landing. It can accurately represent and accurately dock, and serve as a platform for scientific research in a range of disciplines involving biotechnology and radar mapping. ”
Requirements
As you probably know, the space shuttlebitter is not your average plane. It had special requirements for landing.
The orbiter could not land like a conventional plane, as he had only one chance. It lacked propulsion to land to leave. So, NASA had few spaces that could safely land its spacecraft.
The two main landing strips for the space shuttlebiter were NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Edwards Air Force Base in California. However, in 1982 there was a landing on White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. In addition, NASA had many commercial airports and military bases around the world in case of emergency landings.
Kennedy Space Center
The shuttle landing facility at the Kennedy Space Center has a single 4,572 m (15,000 ft) concrete runway. Also, it has an override of 304.8 meters (1,000 ft.) At each end. It is called 15/33. It was first opened for flights in 1976 and was built specifically for the return of space shuttle orbiters.
NASA described the runway as long and wide, as seen in most commercial airports.
The concrete runway is 40.6 (16 inches) centimeters thick and 38.1 centimeters (15 inches) beside it.
If we compare, the runway at the Kennedy Space Center is longer than most runways in the world, but not all. China’s Kamdo is the world’s longest runway at Bamda Airport. It is 5,500 meters long.
Edwards Air Force Base
The orbiter landed primarily at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA chose it that way; Otherwise he would have had to return to Florida using a Boeing 7 747.
Despite that, NASA had Edwards Air Force Base as a back-up site for the landing. The base had nine runways, on which 59 missions landed.
White Sands Space Harbor
In all the space shuttle’s history, it has landed in only three places. The last was White Sands, where Columbia landed once in 1982. NASA had to land Mission STS-3 on the bed of a dry lake in New Mexico as the Edwards Air Force Base spacecraft was flooded before returning.
Where can it come from?
A, B, C, D, were planned all the way up to NASA’s Z when the orbiter descended. For example, it lists several different transosynthetic abort landing sites. These included Moron and Zaragoza Air Bases in Spain, Istress Air Base in France, and Banjul International Airport in Gambia, and Ben Gurir Air Base in Morocco.
NASA also listed several other airports, including Gender International in Canada, Kingsford-Smith in Sydney, Matvery International in Easter Island and Keflavik International Airport in Iceland.
What do you think about the space shuttle orbiter? Did you know that it would have landed somewhere else? Let us know in the comments.
