O.K. So it looks like the suttle will come to Cali or at least we have a pretty high chance of it. I have not been there in a while. Does anyone recall the side roads CLOSE enough to see the landing. I mean I know how to get to Edwards, but it's not like they let you in to watch the landing.


Turbulence

Ralph
At one time you could go out on the dry lake and view the landing.Check with the NASA museum on base. BTW is the 747 ferry bird still airworthy, hasn't been used for this in years, if not NASA might have to enlist the help of the russians super lifters or just stick it to the tax payers and build another.
Semper Fi
Joe

They have been blocking off the roads on the outside of Edwards for years when the Shuttle comes in. "If you want to watch, watch it on the news" was the norm back in 2003 when I left the place. With the current terroist situation, I doubt you will get close enough to see anything.

They still have two more shots at Florida so my guess is it will probably land there. Cost to get it from California to FLorida was unbelievable back in 2001.

Joe, I saw one of the shuttle carriers flying around Plant 42 in Palmdale earlier this year some time, so they won't be a problem. NASA does keep them airworthy--there are two of them, not just one.

Ralph, have you ever seen a shuttle landing before? Even during a "public" landing, you don't get to see much. Of all the landings I saw when I was out there (4,5, 6 landings or so) I don't think I ever got a tally ho any higher than about 1500' AGL. Of course you do get to hear people ask some really weird questions. My favorite one was: "Is it going to take off the same direction it landed?" John's probably right on this one.

David

Dumb question but what can you see at 2:00 AM?

If she is coming home at 2am then it will have to hit the pavement in Florida. They are set up for the night landing situation, Edwards is not. Routinely she touches down between 10 am and 2pm when she hits the deck at Edwards. Either way, it is good to see her back in the air doing what it does best.

Designed with American ingenuity, built with American desire, and flown with American pride!!! There just isn't anything better!

You got that right John.

One of the shuttles reentered over my house one year.... Unbelievable

It was the fastest, Brightest thing I ever saw in the sky.... Not counting
some merteorites!!

How cares where it lands... you need to see it re enter at night.. !!!!

I have a Tape of it some where..

Eddie Weeks

David,
Yep Been there three times myself but it has been a while, LONG while.

Matt,
Night landing. CNN said it was scheduled for a 5:07 AM. landing Eastern time for the first attempt. More like 3 AM, but maybe delayed to land at Edwards since the Cape has Crappy weather.


John,
O well , I guess I will listen to the ex-janitor and stay home and watch it on the tube. Congrats on your New posisition John

Ralph

Eddie, Love to see the tape. There is NOTHING like listening to a tripple sonic boom early in the morning. Almost as good as the smell of Jet-A LOL.

Man, I still re-call my first re-entry story. One when Columbia was coming back in 84, I had my watch set, the alarm went off, and I was just waitng for it. All the Windows at my High School shook, everyone got scared and I just starting laughing at everyone in my Biology class. Professor swore it was a quake, got in truoble for calling him a quak when he would not beleive me it was Columbia coming home.


Ralph

first attempt will be for Kennedy at ~5am Eastern, if that don't happen they'll can try again for Kennedy @~6:30am Eastern or White Sands around the same time, their 3rd attempt will be either White Sands or Edwards @~5:15am Pacific and then if still needing to land will have a chance @ Edwards again around 7am Pacific. Hope all goes well...

Greg,

Someone asked about the 747 that shuttles the ..well shuttle. Yes it's still operational I beleive. The company that converted it now has custody of it I think - or at least it sits at their ramp now. They are now doing full 747 conversions for firefighting. I saw it on TV recently and the 747 with tanks was pretty awesome to see - especially the video they had of it at 500ft agl then dropping water in a canyon. ANyway the background bio on the company mentioned the shuttle hauler and it was there on the ramp (twin rudders vertical stabs) right behind the brand new firefighting 747) so it was pretty recent.

That is not accurate. They CAN land at night at Edwards. In fact, as I type the OMS engines are burning for a 6:12 CDT touchdown at Edwards which is (according to the CAPCOM) 54 minutes prior to local sunrise at Edwards.

When Eddie saw that re-entry over his house, I was taping it too and we were on the phone together. I will never forget how as the Orbiter was getting near Eddie's eastern horizon and the end of his viewing, I was seeing it on my western horizon. I am in Slidell LA and he is in Baton Rouge!!! I was taping it too Ralph. VERY cool. Too bad we might never get to see a sight like that again. They are rather squeamish about entry over land (at least populated land) after Columbia.

HO:Y CRAP Ithe shock wave just hit!

awesome landing, what a morning!

She's back.

Yes a huge sigh of relieve!! I don't think I have ever been so on the edge of my seat as I was this AM watching the live coverage of the decent & coverage of the Shuttle!! I was rather worried like many others abroad of a potential repeat of the Columbia demise but ultimately at 8-12 am I shared in the joy of a successful decent & touchdown!


Damn can you friggen imagine 30,000 mph let alone 20,000,16,000,8000

Steve

Must have been in the early 80's....81 or 82.. I flew to Bakersfield...rented a car drove to Edwards..at that time they allowed spectators to drive to a hill to the south/east of Edwards that was perfect for viewing the complete landing & roll-out. The hill had signs all over it claiming danger buried shells / bombs but no body paid any attention to them.. hundreds of people viewed the landings from that spot.

The two sonic booms came as the shuttle entered down wind flying east.... once you could see the shuttle on finial it was spectacular... the decent rate was just about on a 40 degree angle! The landing that I saw was fine except, the nose came down very hard.. but rolled out fine. The runway was the dry lake bed.

Believe it or not about two hours later.... after departing Bakersfield... I got clearance from Edwards approach control... direct to Edwards cleared to fly over the center of Edwards at about 1500 AGL shuttle still out on the ramp in front of the hangers! I took a poor quality picture of the shuttle as it sat below...I looked around but can't find the picture or I'd scan it and post it.
Lee H. DeMary
AMA 36099

Anyone know where they went "feet dry"? The track looks almost like it hit the beach in Orange County, I am up here north of Malibu and it really rattled the windows!


EDIT: Well I was way off on the track, it might have gone right over my house! It sure sounded that way!

The shuttle woke me up at 5:05! GEEEEEZ, that was a loud one. Dead asleep, two huge booms and my wife and I are instantly sitting up in bed, our hearts racing. Thunder? Terrorists? Kids with M-80s? It took a few minutes for me to process it all.

The folks in L.A. may sneer at us, but ya gotta love living in the Antelope Valley!

David

Woke me up too. Back at Edwards they had said it wouldn't do the night thing here, only at the Cape. Obviously another bit of misinformation. Anyways, looks like she is back and should be ready to do it again in a few months. But heck for the non-believers who think we never went to the moon, they probably think they hold the shuttle in the landing pattern at LAX for about eight days before they let it land.

It was funny to hear so many people called the local Police Department to claim "shots fired" or "Earthquake"

What a site.

Turbulence

Lee, I think that was STS-3. The commander over-rotated the Orbiter nose up, after touch down, and then she slammed down hard onto the nose gear. I believe that was the only time something like that happened. IIRC he actually yielded some nose gear hardware!

Woketman... might you know whether STS 1 (when the large tank was painted white) had the foam insulation ?
Semper Fi
Joe

ABSOLUTELY!!!! Every External Tank needs insulation. If not, the cryo temps would cause awful things to happen. LH2 (liquid hydrogen) is at -432 degrees F at sea level pressure (and the Cape is most assuredly at sea level!). At those temps, air liquefies (if the two feet of iced up condensation on the outer skin does not insulate first!)!

The first two flights back in the 80's (STS-1, & -2) flew with HWT (Heavy Weight) ETs. Those two were painted white, primarily for thermal reasons (reflectance). After those first two flights, the Thermal weenies realized that we did not need the very slight benefit of the white paint (it was actually latex), and we could save 600 lbs per flight by eliminating it. So we never again painted an ET. The SOFI (Spray On Foam Insulation) that we use on the ET is a polyurethane foam, not unlike Great Stuff that we can all buy at Home Depot. When sprayed here at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility, it is very lightly colored, almost white. The deep orange, almost brown color that you see on TV at a Shuttle launch is actually "tanned" SOFI. UV radiation causes it to tan, much like human skin, and it turns the much darker shade.