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Edwards Air Force Base in California was the site of the first Space Shuttle landing, and became a back-up site to the prime landing location, the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center. Several runways are arrayed on the dry lakebed at Rogers Dry Lake, [6] and there are also concrete runways. Space shuttle landings on the lake ...
Splashdown is the method of landing a spacecraft or launch vehicle in a body of water, usually by parachute. This has been the primary recovery method of American capsules including NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Orion along with the private SpaceX Dragon.
In May 2017, construction on a second, smaller pad began, called Landing Zone 2. This pad is located about 1,017 feet (310 m) to the northwest of the first pad and is used for landing Falcon Heavy side boosters. [12] By June 2017, the landing pad was modified with a radar reflective paint, to aid with landing precision. [13]
Kennedy Space Center, operated by NASA, has two launch complexes on Merritt Island comprising four pads—two active, one under lease, and one inactive.From 1967 to 1975, it was the site of 13 Saturn V launches, three crewed Skylab flights and the Apollo–Soyuz; all Space Shuttle flights from 1981 to 2011, and one Ares 1-X flight in 2009.
In October 2014, NASA signed agreement for the use of the facility, and Boeing upgraded the OPF-1 for the X-37B program. [13] The X-37B (OTV-4 mission) first used Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility Runway 15 on May 7, 2017 at 11:47 UTC. [14] [15] Subsequently OTV-5 and 6 mission used Shuttle Landing Facility Runway 33 for landing. [16]
With the advent of the Space Shuttle program in the early 1980s, the original structure of the launch pads were remodeled for the needs of the Space Shuttle.Pad 39A hosted all Space Shuttle launches until January 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger would become the first to launch from pad 39B during the ill-fated STS-51-L mission, which ended with the destruction of Challenger and the death ...
However, the Challenger disaster of 28 January 1986 grounded the Shuttle fleet as efforts were concentrated on recovery and returning the program to flight after a two-year hiatus. [ 15 ] On 31 July 1986, Secretary of the Air Force Edward C. Aldridge, Jr. , announced that Vandenberg's Space Shuttle program would be placed in "operational ...
The core lacked any fins and landing gear, as it was deliberately expended, underwent the most energetic reentry, and impacted at 1,300 km (810 mi) downrange, 8.3% further than STP-2 mission, [388] while the two side boosters were recovered, marking the 150th and 151st successful landing respectively, and 21st landing at LZ-1 and 4th at LZ-2 ...