SHUTTLE LANDINGS STUDIED NASA LIKELY TO KEEP FLORIDA AS FAVORED SITE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - NASA officials are expected to keep Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the primary landing spot when space shuttle flights resume next spring.

While cautioning that a final decision has not yet been made, a NASA spokesman said evaluations of re-entry paths appear to favor Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shuttles returning from the International Space Station spend less time over heavily populated areas by going into Florida rather than Edwards Air Force Base, which requires a flight path over the Los Angeles Basin.

``The data supports Kennedy Space Center, but a decision hasn't been made,'' said NASA spokesman Rob Navias. ``The shuttle program is continuing its assessment.''

The analysis is looking at the safety of shuttle flights into Kennedy, Edwards and White Sands, N.M., which was used for one shuttle landing in 1982. The analysis is drawing to a close and a decision is expected soon.

The landing-site analysis is being conducted to comply with the recommendations released in August 2003 from the board investigating the shuttle Columbia disaster. When Columbia broke apart during re-entry Feb. 1, 2003, it dropped hundreds of pieces of debris onto east Texas, but no one on the ground was injured.

``The Columbia accident demonstrated that orbiter breakup during re-entry has the potential to cause casualties among the general public,'' the Columbia accident report said.

To comply with that recommendation, NASA has examined more than 1,200 simulated re-entry trajectories, depicting shuttles returning from the International Space Station and from Hubble telescope servicing missions.

Edwards served as the shuttle's primary landing site through the 1980s and early 1990s. NASA opted to switch to Florida to save the roughly $1 million in costs for ferrying a shuttle back to Florida after an Edwards landing.

Last August, while addressing the Columbia accident board's recommendations, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe noted the Florida landings required less handling of the shuttle, stating ``the more you touch it, the more you fiddle with it, the more opportunities there are to damage it.''

Edwards has hosted occasional recent landings, usually as the result of bad weather over the Florida coast. The last Edwards landing was when the shuttle Endeavour landed in July 2002.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com