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Just watched the Space Shuttle take off, on the 747 piggyback.

Just one of the cool things about working at Edwards AFB is getting to see 
the various space shuttle activities; scheduled landings are getting to be 
increasingly rare; now that Kennedy SC has upgraded their landing 
infrastructure. The only reason we get a landing here is because of weather 
at Kennedy.  Did you know that during the 90 minute re-entry period a severe 
thunderstorm can move into the landing area in Florida and totally hose 
everything?  Doesn't seem to make a lot of sense, putting a launch site 
where such screwy and destructive weather is so common.

Recently, all the warning we get here on base for landings is about 2 hours; 
during the work day this means sufficient time to "take lunch" and go to one 
of several secret spots we have all discovered over the years.  My favorite 
is near the end of the concrete runway (04/22- as opposed to all the lakebed 
runways we have) and sit something like 300' from the numbers, which is 
where the shuttle touches down.

It is usually pretty difficult to tell what is going to happen when; the 
scheduled times are no doubt accurate, but no one seems to have a clock on 
the same time as NASA.  We sit, 75-100 of us, near the 04 end (usually), and 
wait, looking up.  The first indication that the shuttle is in the area is 
the distinctive "double boom" of the shuttle, still supersonic, slowing from 
the mach 25 orbital speed.  From the boom to touchdown is about 1 minute.

When I first started at Edwards, the sonic boom was the signal to stop what 
you were doing, go outside, watch the landing, and then go back to your 
meeting, of whatever.  No Big Deal....happened every couple of months, 
anyway.  Strictly business as usual; it is very interesting what one can 
become accustomed to.

Even after the boom, it takes a while to site the shuttle;  looking off 
toward the horizon, in the approach path used by most aircraft will result 
in missing a truly amazing site; the Space Shuttle...STRAIT UP THERE ( or 
what seems like it) and falling...LIKE A ROCK, STRAIT DOWN!!  Necks craned 
back, the crowd shouts, points, and gets real quiet.

The Shuttle starts as just a speck, black against the sky, nose like 30-40 
degrees down, and coming pretty fast.  The speck grows; and the trajectory 
starts to flatten, coming into the final approach.....lower....nose coming 
up.....lower....lower....flatter.....now traveling at a very gentle glide, 
trading horizontal for vertical speed....waiting until the last second to 
deploy the landing gear, which deploys (by gravity...no steenkin power) just 
a few seconds before touchdown.

At the 04 end, just as the landing flare starts, and the gear 
deploys.....you start to hear The Sound.

The shuttle returns without engines, just a big, cumbersome glider with poor 
L/D characteristics.  There are no motors to make noise, and the television 
pictures always show a silent craft touching down on the runway.  It is 
slightly different in person.

The Shuttle roars.

This tremendous brick, thoroughly heated and without go-around capability 
actually roars as it comes down, flashes past, maybe 300' away, making as 
much noise in its unpowered mode as a landing jet does, engine at idle or 
near to it; the sound is deep, and surprisingly strong, and always, ALWAYS 
gives me the chills, knowing that no engine causes that beautiful noise, 
just air being beaten to death by this man made traveler to space, returning 
itself and its humans for yet another trip to the near earth orbits.

A few seconds to listen, imagine you can feel the heat left over from the 
re-entry against your face, and then its over, landed, parachute, 
stop....recovery.  Ain't nobody getting out for a while, time to go back to 
work.

The shuttle fouls the runway for about 4 hours, and then they tow the 
shuttle up to the Dryden Flight Research Facility, about a mile away.  I've 
never seen the towing operation, for reasons I can't understand.  Must take 
a while, and the vehicle is certainly large enough.  It takes a few days to 
get the shuttle on top of the 747, something that would make me nervous, 
since I have enough trouble getting more then one bike on top of my 
camper.....

And then the shuttle leaves, strapped to the 747.  Accelerates REAL slow, 
turns and climbs real gentle like.  That's what I saw today, and I could 
hear the spectators across base shouting as the 747 rotated the front wheel 
off the ground, and when the main gear came up.  Until we meet again.....

ObVW:  The shuttle on the back of the 747 reminds me of an old "Blue Bird" 
bus I once saw at Saline Hot Springs (Death Valley area) with a mid 70's 
westy welded to the roof.  Killer veranda, if you ask me....I wonder if 
anyone sits in the shuttle, as I saw someone sitting in that VW, and I 
wonder what the view is like......

bowmanr%em@mhs.elan.af.mil
Live Smart.  Think for yourself.  Transform the future.
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