Shuttle Aims for Edwards Landing : Crew Wraps Up Experiments, Will Soar Across L.A. Area
HOUSTON — The seven astronauts of the space shuttle Challenger wrapped up the final phases of their 15 scientific experiments Sunday as they prepared to land this morning at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert.
The Challenger, which overcame a number of early flight glitches before settling into a smooth scientific mission that yielded a vast amount of data, is scheduled to touch down at Edward’s runway No. 23 at 9:10 a.m. today, seven minutes behind schedule after seven days in space and 108 orbits of the Earth.
It will be the first time in 11 landings at Edwards that the shuttle will pass directly over the Los Angeles area. It will first fly over Long Beach a few seconds before 9:03 a.m., and then make a landing approach that will carry it over Compton, Los Angeles and Glendale-Burbank. National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials said that the shuttle would announce its arrival with two sonic booms as it slows down but that it is unlikely that Challenger will be visible from the ground.
Might See Black Dot
“You would have to be looking at exactly the right place at exactly the right time,” NASA spokesman Terry White said.
He said that the most one might see is a black dot, and only if the sky is perfectly clear. Puffs of white smoke, which would indicate that the shuttle is venting fuel, would be one way to pick up its path, he said. When a person on the ground hears the sonic booms, he added, the Challenger already will be far out of range.
It will be traveling at 98,000 feet, about three times the maximum altitude of commercial airliners. The craft will be flying at 2,498 m.p.h. in the pass over Long Beach.
If crosswinds at Edwards exceed 15 m.p.h., the Challenger may be forced to spend another 24 hours in space. Flight Director Gary Coen said Edwards would remain the primary landing site if the landing is delayed until Tuesday, with Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and White Sands, N.M., serving as alternative sites.
NASA chose Edwards as a primary landing site because of the heavy Challenger payload: the 30,000-pound, European-built Skylab. Edwards offers a longer runway with less possibility of strong crosswinds than the Florida site.
Astronaut Frederick D. Gregory, Challenger’s co-pilot, said Sunday that the crew’s attention was beginning to focus on the return.
“When we arrive at Eddy, a beer, of course, would be nice,” he said. “But I think all of us would like an ice cream with chocolate and strawberries.”
Perhaps the most eloquent comments of the mission were made Sunday morning by astronaut Don Lind, who had spent 19 years--longer than any other astronaut--waiting for his first ride into space. Lind was giving what amounted to a basic science lesson in one of his experiments, a study of Earth’s electrically charged, glittering auroras. He told students who might hear him to continue their interest in science and to aim for a space flight like the one he finally achieved.
“I can guarantee you will have a spectacular view of one of the most impressive natural phenomenons this world has to offer,” he said.
By early afternoon, the seven crew members, who include flight commander Robert F. Overmyer, physicians Norman E. Thagard and William E. Thornton and scientists Taylor Wang and Lodewijk van den Berg, began to shut down a number of their experiments.
When they return to Earth, they will have compiled enough data to fill 50,000 volumes of 200 pages each, much of it related to the future commercial uses of space. Among those uses are the manufacture of exotic materials that can be produced only in a weightless environment. Spacelab was designed to be a precursor to a space station, which NASA says could be built by as early as 1993.
Experiment Problems
The buoyant spirits aboard the Challenger on Sunday were a far cry from the confusion of the mission shortly after it lifted off from Cape Kennedy last Monday. A number of experiments malfunctioned then, and they were saved by long hours of crew repairs as Challenger orbited the Earth.
Among those problems were difficulties with the cages of rats and monkeys that were included in the flight, which sprayed food and feces into the cabin.
But, by using tape and wire, the astronauts were able to overcome many of their difficulties, and only one experiment is considered a failure. That one was with a French-made wide-angle camera that did not work because of a mechanical malfunction.
“From my standpoint, it looks like some extremely impressive results,” mission manager Joseph Cremin said.
