Shuttle emergency abort sites preparations?

[Roy Smith]

According to wikipedia, "In the event of an emergency deorbit that would
bring the Orbiter down in an area not within range of a designated
emergency landing site, the Orbiter is theoretically capable of landing on
any paved runway that is at least 10,000 feet long, which includes the
majority of large commercial airports. (In practice, a US military airfield
would probably be preferred for reasons of security arrangements and
minimizing the disruption of commercial air traffic.)"

So, for all you ATC types out there, how does this work? Does NASA just
pick up the phone, call JFK Tower, and tell them to expect the shuttle in a
few minutes? Do you guys get any training on what to do should this ever
be required?

I imagine it would require moving a lot of flights out of the way pretty
quickly.

[Blanche]

The landing area is not chosen "a few minutes in advance". There's
at least one orbit, usually 2 (90/180 min) for the final decision.

[Vic7]

The landing area is not chosen "a few minutes in advance". There's
at least one orbit, usually 2 (90/180 min) for the final decision.


That is quite true for a de-orbit landing, but what about a sub-orbital launch abort? Is an emergency landing site always available after a certain minimum altitude is reached?

I am certain the engineers have calculated the answer to this question and the pilot and mission commander have that emergency procedure memorized, but I have no idea if there are any critical gaps short of orbit.

[John Clear]

In article >,
Vic7 > wrote:
>
>
>That is quite true for a de-orbit landing, but what about a sub-orbital
>launch abort? Is an emergency landing site always available after a
>certain minimum altitude is reached?
>
>I am certain the engineers have calculated the answer to this question
>and the pilot and mission commander have that emergency procedure
>memorized, but I have no idea if there are any critical gaps short of
>orbit.

There are various scenarios that they have for launch aborts.
Wikipedia has a good writeup:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_abort_modes

There are four basic types of launch aborts. The names pretty
much explain them.

Return to Launch Site (RTLS)
Transatlantic Abort Landing (TAL)
Abort Once Around (AOA)
Abort To Orbit (ATO)

Transatlantic Aborts have various pre-chosen sites in Europe and
north Africa, depending on the launch trajectory.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

[Blanche]

Vic7 > wrote:

>Blanche Wrote:
>> The landing area is not chosen "a few minutes in advance". There's
>> at least one orbit, usually 2 (90/180 min) for the final decision.
>
>That is quite true for a de-orbit landing, but what about a sub-orbital
>launch abort? Is an emergency landing site always available after a
>certain minimum altitude is reached?
>
>I am certain the engineers have calculated the answer to this question
>and the pilot and mission commander have that emergency procedure
>memorized, but I have no idea if there are any critical gaps short of
>orbit.

Launch aborts are completely different, and depends entirely at what
point in the launch process the decision is made to abort. There are
alternate landing sites outside the USA.

www.globalsecurity.org/space/facility/sts-els.htm

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/behindscenes/tal_sites.html

www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html