The shuttle can't take off under its own power back to Florida, so it's mounted on one of two modified 747s called Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The extra effort to move the shuttle from Edwards costs NASA about 1.7 million dollars, so landing here is not a decision taken lightly. However it could be worse; to allow for all sorts of emergency contingencies there are other landing sites in such unlikely places as Gambia, French Polynesia, Saudi Arabia, the Congo and Easter Island.
No comments:
Post a Comment