Space Shuttle – Just a Suggestion

A heard thhat a medium sized museum in the states who applied for one got a lovely NASA A4 folder full of demands and regulations on what could be done with them and how they were to be stored and they had to fulfill lots of criterior part of which was to be kept inside and within a temperature range.

curlyboy

It’s unlikely Palmdale will get one, even though they were built here. 😡

** merged*

You wont find one here as NASA is still demanding that whoever has one has to pay for delivery which entails it being air freighted on one of NASA’s 747 shuttle carriers to the nearest airport and then roaded to the museum but whoever has them cannot cut the wings or fin off.

A heard thhat a medium sized museum in the states who applied for one got a lovely NASA A4 folder full of demands and regulations on what could be done with them and how they were to be stored and they had to fulfill lots of criterior part of which was to be kept inside and within a temperature range.

curlyboy

Some amazing Panorama shots of the Prep work on Endeavour here:

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourNose110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourRFRCS110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourCWind110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourMid110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourT1Hatch110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourTail110113/

http://nasatech.net/EndeavourFuelFeed110113/

😉 I promised not to tell……

…… but NASA booked the last stall at tomorrow’s Aeroboot!! :diablo:

Just in case anyone takes this seriously they didn’t actually manage to book a stall because it was sold out!! 😀

No

Space Shuttle Allocations

Will the UK be in line .

Thats a cool picture, funny the loading instructions for it could be more complex!!

curlyboy

On 5 June 1983, in front of nearly half a million people, NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise arrived at Stansted on the back of a specially modified Boeing 747 as part of NASA’s one-off European tour that included stopovers in Germany, Italy and France. Stayed for the weekend!

Yes, the local farmers made a quick buck that week turning their fields into car parks.

I’ve just realised something profound: we are discussing the Space Shuttle in the context that it is about to be retired and the fleet are to become museum pieces. The first flight was on 12th April 1981 – thirty years ago. Twenty years before and to the day Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin became the first man in space.

wasnt the Enterprise just a shell ?.I seem to remember talk of them fitting her out for use after the Challenger disaster but dont know if they did or not ?

Not really the Enterprise was originally to be a full shuttle but she was instead built to test gliding ability for re-entry and for system tests, after the loss of the Challenger NASA did run a feasibilty study into turning Enterprise into a full shuttle but it would entail a complete rebuild so it was cheaper to turn a test article airframe into Endeavour.

curlyboy

Way back when Bentwaters was being sold it was said that it was an emergency landing strip for the Shuttle.

You’re proabably right….

edit: There are mentions on t’inteweb that Elvington was on the list during the 1980’s. Nothing definitive though, but I don’t think it’s folklore. The UK sites are only to be used if the shuttle is forced to abandon launch before getting to orbit. Even Fairford is not a ‘mission completed’ landing zone.

You could apply for the Enterprise as the Smithsonian no longer want it as they are getting Discovery when it gets back from orbit.

However a petition from Star Trek fans might put pay to that.

curlyboy

wasnt the Enterprise just a shell ?.I seem to remember talk of them fitting her out for use after the Challenger disaster but dont know if they did or not ?

You could apply for the Enterprise as the Smithsonian no longer want it as they are getting Discovery when it gets back from orbit.

However a petition from Star Trek fans might put pay to that.

curlyboy

The crucial thing about shuttle landings though isn’t the length of runway, although an important consideration, the other is its runway orientation. The orbiter has to re-enter at a certain degree from a pre-planned orbit, and due to being an expensive glider, doesn’t have the same positioning capability ad a powered aircraft. There are many orientations of runway would necessitate an impossible re-entry trajectory.

Considering the twists & turns the Shuttle does to slow down on approach to landing I think it could pretty much line up with any runway. I was at the local racetrack a couple of years back & it passed right over me on the way into Edwards. The boom from a shuttle approach is WAAAY louder than the usual (almost daily) booms we get from the fast guys messing about at the base.
You really don’t want to be inside a big metal building when it goes over..

Wonder where it would have landed….a 5 mile strip on Salisbury Plain I suppose?

Doesn’t need 5 miles, they used to talk about landing it in Palmdale right here in town when it needed work but never actually did it.

Hasn’t the shuttle, in theory, already made quite a number of world tours – although I’ll admit, probably slightly difficult to see without a telescope!!!

FB

You can see it easily without a telescope as it goes over. I’ve even seen it pacing the ISS.

With all this about the landing grounds etc….

I always thought that the runway work that was carried out around 8/10 years ago was to maintain this capability? :confused:

Too right!

It’s certainly not on the NASA list, Fairford is the only one and that is even on the very improbable category.
I remember years ago people saying Mawgan and Boscombe were set aside for Shuttle emergency landings, but I think it is just folklore which arises from the lengths of runways at these places.
I dare say that if any runway was in the right location, long and strong enough, then it would be better that the Shuttle uses it and is saved, and suppose these bases come under that umbrella, but there is no evidence that they were choosen sites.

With you 100% on that one.

The crucial thing about shuttle landings though isn’t the length of runway, although an important consideration, the other is its runway orientation. The orbiter has to re-enter at a certain degree from a pre-planned orbit, and due to being an expensive glider, doesn’t have the same positioning capability ad a powered aircraft. There are many orientations of runway would necessitate an impossible re-entry trajectory.

Pretty pointless hypothesising IMHO….

Kind regards
Scotty

Well they have a concorde for some bizzare reason?

At least we didn’t kick up a huge fuss about the supposed noise the space settle would make :rolleyes:

Bizzare, why bizzare ?? Concordes flew into New York nearly every day of their operational career. Pity we didn’t ship a few more off around the world. Six in the UK seems overkill to me………

Planemike

It’s certainly not on the NASA list, Fairford is the only one and that is even on the very improbable category.

I was stationed at a USAF base that was a Shuttle emergency site.
To the best of my knowledge, that meant we were on a list, I don’t now of any equipment pre-positioning or any other preparations being made.