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June 8, 2005
France gets shuttle emergency site
Conditions are unique to each facility
BY CHRIS KRIDLER
FLORIDA TODAY
Practicing for emergency. Dean Schaaf of Merritt Island is a landing support convoy commander for NASA at Kennedy Space Center. Shuttle landing simulation, such as the command vehicle Schaaf is seen in, gives ground crews a chance to test landing procedures at the Kennedy Space Center Landing Facility. Michael R. Brown, FLORIDA TODAY
Enlarge this image
Landing sites
If a launching shuttle has a crisis during a particular part of its ascent, it could attempt a landing at a Transoceanic Abort Landing site. The main sites now available are: Zaragoza Air Base, Spain: Designated a TAL site in 1983; Moron Air Base, Spain: Designated a TAL site in 1984; and Istres Air Base, France:Designated a TAL site in 2005.
CAPE CANAVERAL - It's a lot of work to prepare a shuttle landing site that's never been used, perhaps never will be, but the people on the job say it's worth it.
"We work hard at the job we hope we never have to do," said Dean Schaaf of Merritt Island. He's a landing support convoy commander for NASA at Kennedy Space Center, but he also has frequently traveled overseas to set up emergency landing sites for the space shuttle.
The Transoceanic Abort Landing or TAL sites have changed locations and methods during the years, for security and technical reasons. A site in Gambia is no longer used. Neither are sites in Guam and Hawaii.
A new site in France, at Istres Air Base, was made official Tuesday. In effect, it replaces Ben Guerir Air Base in Morocco. Ben Guerir hasn't been deactivated as an emergency site, but it always was used for flights closer to the equator, none of which are planned.
Istres and two sites in Spain will provide a place for Discovery to land in case the shuttle can't return to its launch site or can't get to orbit if something goes wrong.
Conditions are unique to each site. Chris Hasselbring of Rockledge, who works for shuttle contractor United Space Alliance, remembers monkeys on the runway in Gambia.
More common are communication challenges, as NASA, its contractors and Department of Defense employees interact with local firefighters and bureaucrats at the foreign sites.
At Istres, French firefighters have been trained for shuttle rescues, Schaaf said. "We will have a language problem there, but it will be overcome with our interpreters," he said.
The American teams go in and prepare rescue gear, set off weather balloons and set up lights. Those include safety lights to guide an orbiter to the runway.
"In Spain, for instance, at Moron (Air Base), those lights are actually set up in this guy's olive grove," Hasselbring said, "because that's a mile from the end of the runway."
A local security company guards the lights.
Giant nets are no longer needed at the end of the emergency runways, officials said because the shuttles were equipped with better brakes and a drag chute.
One of the biggest challenges is finding enough hotel rooms for the support team on a moment's notice, Schaaf said.
Among the team members at each site is an astronaut representing Johnson Space Center, called the TALCOM or TAL communicator. The astronaut flies weather reconnaissance and, in the process, gets familiar with the site where he might be expected to land someday.
Hasselbring got to know Willie McCool, one of the astronauts who later died aboard Columbia, when McCool spent time as a TALCOM at the site in Zaragoza, Spain.
The overseas reception has been positive, Schaaf said. "They're excited about it, especially the Moroccans, the Spanish, the French," he said. "They're very proud that their country is supporting the space shuttle."
Contact Kridler at 242-3633 or [log in to unmask]
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