RUNWAY REFIT MAY DIVERT SHUTTLE LANDINGS.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - Edwards Air Force Base will temporarily lose its status as the backup shuttle landing site this fall as the result of construction work on the base's main runway. Beginning Sept. 1 and running through November, the first 2,000 feet of runway 22 will be rebuilt. Runway 22 is the base's 15,000-foot-long concrete main runway. The dry lake bed runways at Edwards will not be used because of concerns about the weight of the returning shuttles. The next shuttle missions involve the continued construction of the International Space Station, said NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. spokesman Alan Brown
In those missions, the orbiters return to Earth much heavier than in other missions. No space shuttle missions <onlyinclude> This is a list of missions flown by space shuttles. As of 2006, only the United States has flown human spaceflight shuttle missions, in the Space Shuttle program, while the Soviet Union flew one unmanned flight of the Buran. are planned for that time period. However, if any of the missions scheduled for this summer get pushed back significantly, White Sands White Sands, uninhabited desert area, S central N.Mex. It is a center for U.S. military-weapons research and testing. On July 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb was exploded at Holloman Air Force Base (formerly Alamogordo Air Base). , N.M., will be the backup landing site. Runway 22 was built in the 1950s. Although it is officially listed at 15,000 feet long, it is actually 14,995 feet long. A former Edwards commander diverted concrete earmarked for the runway for a swimming pool project at his quarters. That officer was reassigned before he ever had a chance to use the pool. The runway work, the first major renovation since it was built, will involve rebuilding a 150-foot-wide section of the first 2,000 feet. A taxiway taxiway: see airport. to the runway also will be refurbished. Airplanes and craft other than the shuttle will still be able to use the runway while the reconstruction work is going on. |
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