Re: Space Shuttle landing at Groom Lake


Message posted by Peter Merlin on July 03, 2008 at 15:19:33 PST:

I have never heard Groom Lake mentioned as a contingency site for the space shuttle. The orbiter's available landing sites are dictated by the laws of orbital mechanics. The runway at Groom Lake is comparable to the runway at Edwards but I'm not sure that it is located in such a way as to be useable following return from orbit.

Groom Lake was, however, a designated contingency landing site for the X-15. It would have been used if then rocket plane's engine failed at a point where the vehicle was too far along to return to Delamar Lake and didn't have enough energy to reach the next available lakebed. X-15 contingency landing sites were chosen for physical characteristics and on the basis of energy management calculations.


In Reply to: Space Shuttle landing at Groom Lake posted by Robert on July 03, 2008 at 11:42:15 PST:

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