The Shuttle's long journey back from Edwards
Jun 2, 2009, 2:00 pm
#1
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The Shuttle's long journey back from Edwards
I had no idea just how taxing the Shuttle's return journey from Edwards Air Force Base back to the Kennedy Space Center was until I read about its tech stop in San Antonio (Lackland Air Force Base) today. I had always assumed that the flight from California to Florida would be a non-stop. It is anything but. NASA has an excellent blog (with pictures) chronicling the journey.
Yesterday, the 747 carrying the Shuttle piggyback flew from Edwards to El Paso (Biggs Army Airfield). Today it resumed its journey by flying from El Paso to San Antonio. Amazing that it takes two stops to transit Texas, no? After stopping at Lackland for a few hours -- here is some video of the takeoff from Lackland today -- it's now on its way to Columbus Air Force base in Mississippi. Flight Aware is tracking its journey across the country: NASA 911.
Yesterday, the 747 carrying the Shuttle piggyback flew from Edwards to El Paso (Biggs Army Airfield). Today it resumed its journey by flying from El Paso to San Antonio. Amazing that it takes two stops to transit Texas, no? After stopping at Lackland for a few hours -- here is some video of the takeoff from Lackland today -- it's now on its way to Columbus Air Force base in Mississippi. Flight Aware is tracking its journey across the country: NASA 911.
Jun 2, 2009, 3:26 pm
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it can fly further than that, I remember as a child going to see Enterprise (I think) it was 1983 and it was STN before it was a real airport. must find the photos sometime
Jun 3, 2009, 3:42 pm
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Enterprise is a mock-up though. It weighs nowhere near what an actual shuttle weighs. Basically they can only load up the 747 they use with very little fuel before exceeding MTOW when a shuttle's stuck to the back. That makes for some short hauls. I dunno what the added drag does, nor what effect the shuttles wings have on lift and fuel requirements.
Jun 3, 2009, 10:49 pm
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Was wondering if the Shuttle was going to divert to cali due to the weather-
Very interesting the segments it takes-
Was wondering if the Shuttle was going to divert to cali due to the weather-
Very interesting the segments it takes-
Last edited by beckoa; Jun 5, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Jun 4, 2009, 4:24 am
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Very interesting. I'd always assumed, like the OP, that this was a straightforward ferry flight. One wonders how easy it would be to repatriate an orbiter from, say, RAF Fairford or, dare I say it, Australia, should one end up there in an emergency 
I guess transport by sea is an option in that eventuality.
m.
I guess transport by sea is an option in that eventuality.m.
Jun 4, 2009, 6:49 am
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Very interesting. I'd always assumed, like the OP, that this was a straightforward ferry flight. One wonders how easy it would be to repatriate an orbiter from, say, RAF Fairford or, dare I say it, Australia, should one end up there in an emergency I guess transport by sea is an option in that eventuality.
m.
I guess transport by sea is an option in that eventuality.m.
Jun 4, 2009, 10:10 am
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Enterprise is a mock-up though. It weighs nowhere near what an actual shuttle weighs. Basically they can only load up the 747 they use with very little fuel before exceeding MTOW when a shuttle's stuck to the back. That makes for some short hauls. I dunno what the added drag does, nor what effect the shuttles wings have on lift and fuel requirements.
Jun 4, 2009, 11:42 am
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A shuttle would represent a fair amount of drag, much as one of those roof-mount boxes on vehicles, except the drag is probably worst (even allowing for size) due to the higher speed of flight. I always wondered how many stops were required.
Similarly, the Guppies/Super Guppies and Belugas used by Airbus to transport wings from England to TLS also have short range due to the drag of the fuselage.
The range of the transporter with a shuttle mounted is stated to be 1,150 miles (so that intra-Texas hop seems to be abnormally short?), with a ceiling of just 15,000' ( vs. 35,000' or so on a normal 747), and a cruise speed of mach 0.6 (a 747 normally travels at 0.8-0.85).
Similarly, the Guppies/Super Guppies and Belugas used by Airbus to transport wings from England to TLS also have short range due to the drag of the fuselage.
The range of the transporter with a shuttle mounted is stated to be 1,150 miles (so that intra-Texas hop seems to be abnormally short?), with a ceiling of just 15,000' ( vs. 35,000' or so on a normal 747), and a cruise speed of mach 0.6 (a 747 normally travels at 0.8-0.85).
Last edited by YVR Cockroach; Jun 4, 2009 at 11:50 am Reason: If Wikipedia is to be believed.....
Jun 5, 2009, 10:11 am
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As a kid when I was living in Colorado Springs we were in one of the approach patterns to the airport there (the runways at the airport were shared with the base). One of the orbitters came in on the 747 one day (although I can't guarantee it wasn't the enterprise, it's been quite some time), and they litteraly flew right over my house, at a pretty low altitude. Just absolutely magical to watch. You could see it sitting on the runway in the distance from our top floor (also had an SR71 that made an emergency landing once that sat out away from things on the runway that we could see once).
I guess the reason it was there was the commander for an upcoming mission had a son at the AF academy, so somehow they swung bringing it through. (Unfortunately, said mission was the Challenger. The son was someone we'd actually had at our house a couple of times as part of the sponsoring that faculty members would do for cadets at the academy.).
It's been many years, but I still remember watching it fly over. Seemed like you could just reach up and touch it.
I guess the reason it was there was the commander for an upcoming mission had a son at the AF academy, so somehow they swung bringing it through. (Unfortunately, said mission was the Challenger. The son was someone we'd actually had at our house a couple of times as part of the sponsoring that faculty members would do for cadets at the academy.).
It's been many years, but I still remember watching it fly over. Seemed like you could just reach up and touch it.
Jun 5, 2009, 10:08 pm
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Segments wise not bad... $ wise... 
IIRC a shuttle in cali adds $1,000,000+
Originally Posted by IsleOfMan
Does NASA have a 500 EQM/segment minimum? If so, might not be a bad MR.
IIRC a shuttle in cali adds $1,000,000+
Last edited by beckoa; Jun 5, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Jun 6, 2009, 12:53 pm
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