Shuttle Landing & New PC Airport

[Smiling JOe]

Somewhere, I recently read that the new PC Airport, when built will be capable of handling the Space Shuttle Landing. Today, it seems that the Shuttle is having difficulty in finding a place to land this afternoon due to bad weather. I wonder what the likelihood that the Shuttle would land in PC as a second back up to Cape Canaveral and TX. It would sure save a bunch of fuel and money if they didn't have to transport it back to Canaveral from TX. Or, will this all matter since I heard that NASA has planned to phase out the Shuttle over the next few years? It would be cool to see the Shuttle landing.

 

[Kurt]

There are several strips they could land on - JFK, Orlando, O'hare, etc. but they are about half as wide as KSC. Nor do they have overruns on each end for safety. The primary back up for KSC is Edwards AFB in Cally.

I wouldn't doubt that PC could handle it in an emergency but they will avoid civilian airports if possible.