🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3240@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@titan.rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes:


>   In article <779@ivucsb.UUCP> todd@ivucsb.UUCP (Todd Day) writes:
>   >I went all the way out to Edwards, and had a lot of fun waiting for
>   >and watching the shuttle land.  However, I was disappointed that the
>   >crowd does not get to be closer to the actual landing site.  We could
>   >barely see it when it landed, although the view when it flew over us
>   >was fantastic!

>   I suspect that they had you positioned for a landing on runway 17 (that's
>   certainly where the convoy was poised).  The switch to 22 was made within
>   20 (15, even?) minutes of landing.  Really unfortunate for those that made
>   the trip.  Take solace in the fact that the camera views that NASA Select
>   provided weren't very good either...."There it is, coming down.  It's
>   almost ready to touch the pavement.  Whoops, there's a building in the
>   way.  Oh I see it rolling again.  Oh, now it just went behind that
>   hanger,...", etc.

The Shuttle Public Viewing Area is always in the same place, far away.  This
is a hazardous event and they don't want people very close.  The Shuttle is
filled with dangerous stuff and the Air Force and NASA don't want to spray
400K bystanders with NO4 or hydrazine.  We are not even allowed to stand out
on the ramp when they tow the Shuttle to the MDD.

I thought this was one of the least viewable landings.  The high sun angle
really made it hard to follow the aircraft around the HAC.  I picked it up
overhead and then lost it.  The clouds were perfectly placed to make it 
difficult!  I finally picked it up on final, about half-way across the
lakebed.  I even had the aid of being able to watch the tracking TM antenna,
since I was on the roof at Dryden.  (This antenna was pointing at the Shuttle
from about the coastline to touchdown.)  I infinitely prefer the early 
landings, with the low sun angle.

By the way, did those of you who were at the landing notice that you could
hear the Shuttle really well?  It's usually very hard to hear.

--

M F Shafer
NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility
shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov or shafer@drynix.dfrf.nasa.gov

NASA management doesn't know what I'm doing and I don't know what they're
doing, and everybody's happy this way.