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Show 4 THE SAMPLER Friday, April 9, 1982 post plays shuttle role Army ing to their figures, over 700 media people were on hand to record the event, along with 1,400 VIPS and spectators. For the first aborted landing attempt over 16,500 outside spectators showed up, only to be disappointed as high winds postponed the landing. Hie second attempt to bring Columbia down was successful, but only 6,500 manged to return to watch the event. White Sands was selected as one of the three "primary shuttle landing sites because of its remote location in the New Mexico desert, as WSMR covers over 4,000 sq. miles of desert and is larger than the state of Massachusetts. Northrup Strip is located 50 miles from post headquarters on the range itself which is 40 by 100 miles. Each runway is 35,000 feet long, 200 feet wide with, 3 feet wide black edges and center lines. Preparation for the landing of the shuttle Began Thursday, March 18, when it was officially announced that Edwards was too wet to permit a landing. WSMR will remain one of the top three primary landing zones, even after the shuttle begins regular landings at Cape Canaveral, in addition, to being an early orbital abort landing zone. This permits flexibility in mission planning or in case of bad weather or landing conditions at one of the other primary landing zones. Other contingency landing zones include Rota, Spain, the Philippines and Hawaii International Airport. WSMR is a d military post located 28 miles southeast of Las Cruces and 39 miles southwest of Alamagordo. It has a working population of 4,128 : U.S. government civilians, 1,372 military (Air Force, Army, Navy, etc.) and 2,440 contracted civilians on the post. On the fourth or fifth shuttle mission and from then on, barring unforeseen circumstances, the shuttle will regularly land at the Cape, in order to speed time in shuttle launches. The up the turn-aroucurrent tum-aroutime for the shuttle is between two to four months. With the landings at the cape, and addition of the second orbiter Challenger , which is due to be delivered to NASA later this d time will hopefullly be respring, the duced to a month or less. Although the program eventually hopes to have nine shuttles, currently only four will be used within the near future. by SF5 Dave Finnlck Amid the cheers and applause of spectators watching at Northrup Strip the 110,000 pound spacecraft Columbia gently touched down on the desert runwav located at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), New Mexico. While the orbiter was harried by small problems during the flight, such as balky cameras and radios, the mission overall was considered a success by NASA officials. White Sands was selected as the primary landing site, in addition to being the first orbit abort landing zone, when it was decided that Edwards Air Force ' Bases dry lake bed landing zone was too wpt to facilitate a landing of the shuttle. What most folks who were watching on TV or in person didnt realize was how much effort and teamwork was involved by the Army TECOM installation and its personnel. According to the White Sands Public Affairs Office, almost every unit and tennant activity on the post was involved in one way or another. For example, the Facilities Engineers built and maintained the two runways,. 17 which runs N-- S that makeup the Northrup and 250 which runs E-was first since area determined to use it for it Strip the shuttle in 1977. In fact, shuttle astronauts regularly practice landings and approaches in the shuttle training aircraft on a regular basis at the WSMR strip, and it was a back-u- p abort land site for the first two shuttle missions. Military police from WSMR and a detachment from Fort Bliss, Texas provided security and patrols for the landing while the Pictorial Section provided still, motion picture, video and lab services for coverage of the shuttle landing. Safety, Environment and EOD, (explosive ordnance disposal), personnel also provided support, in everything from constant ground search of the runway and viewing areas for any kind of ordnance or buried explosive devices to monitoring of the shuttle after landing for leakage of poisonous or combustible vapors to prevent accidental exposures to visitors or personnel working the shuttle. as well Hie Meterological group provided e, information. weather as, regional The Communications people provided for contact between the shuttle, Houston, and ground personnel assisting in the landing at WSMR In Building 300 radar, computer and other electronic information was being relayed between the various crews. Even the motor pool was involved, providing transportation to the various units, crews and personnel viewing the landing. Hie WSMR Public Affairs Office had the tremendous task of coordinating the media coverage as well as the public wanting to view the spectacle. Accord - W, semi-close- nd nd tum-aroun- on-sit- .The current shuttle Columbia , and the other three to be built are Challenger , Discovery and Atlantis. A fifth shuttle owned and operated by NASA contracted out by private industry is stil only in the talking stage. The first orbiter, Enterprise , was used as a Columbia carries University experiments into orbit by SP5 Dave Pinnick space carried an experiment designed by Utah State under grant from NASA to provide information on the electrical charging of the shuttle in orbit through the ionisphere. According to John Raitte of the Utah State Science Department, the Vehical Charging and Potential Experiment (VCAP) would perform this experiment while the shuttle passively orbited the earth as well as when it changed its altitude with respect to the velocity vector of the sun and the earths magnetic field. Raitte said, We also studied under active charging conditions, when we were using an electron generator to emit a beam of electrons from the shuttle and thereby try and alter its TV Got $50 Bond 4 4h depending on several as the way the electron such things, beam interacts with the atmosphere. But another factor involved in the flight added to the capabilities of the system. Another instrument package, called the AMANA RADAR RANGE A510 LAST FEW DAYS OF xtatax 48995 $25 Rebato Gibson 19 Cu. Ft. 18 Cu. FL SALKS REFRIGERATOR 649 CAL-STYL- FAY NO . WATERBED 388 298 special carmisters. Two Utah State University graduate students and four faculty mem- bers were involved in the project along with three people from Stanford. Total price for the project, including another year of data reduction and the cost of two years of inflation, because of delays in the shuttle program, is approximately 1.6 million dollars. The experiment was located in the rear of the 60 ft. long by 15 ft. wide cargo bay, on one of the European-bui- lt pallets which are 9.5 ft. long by 13.32 ft. wide. There is only one other instrument, the Developmental Flight Instruments (DFI) package that is between it and the rear of the payload bay (see diagram for loca- tion). The equipment was composed of several sub-unispread out across the pallet and weighed approximately 200 lbs. total weight. ts $299 ............ $349 399 449 PAY tIO SALES TAX A U-fe- h AristsGui Id exhibit ion whicW benefits 4he DPG Comnu DC from 7&Apri I CharTpaonehord oeurV CoWRUMlTTCLUb CUAR AUTO ' ORTHO REST BEDDING 15 warrantee CENTER year Twin Full ........ 177 217 GILLESPIE FULL BOOKCASE DINETTE 5-P- C. ... King "NAUTILAUS E experiments are scheduled as part of the getaway specials program that will be carried on the next shuttle flight in 5s Queen AMANA REFRIGERATOR ng . rd : d student-designe- . J. MAYTAG on-boa- charges, data-gatheri- in space. Another crew-relate- d part of the experiment involved four separate attempts to get a visual observation of the beam. For this, they used their eyes, TV cameras mounted the shuttle in the bay and special cameras loaded with sensitive film. This was in an attempt to get a picture of the beam or see any light produced as the beam moved through the atmosphere. According to Raitte, it was discovered from tests in ground chambers that they could find out a great deal about the interaction process itself, just by observing the visual image of the beam. experiments, University-sponsore- d some FLOATION WATERBEDS Full $50 Bond On the payload bay with the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), and move it across the tip of the electron beam several times to look at its profile as well as the waves generated inside and outside the beam. It also was used to observe the way the particles produced by the beam are distributed ionisphere. Hiat was what we were originally funded to do, he continued, to study the way in which the vehicle Twin PAY NO SALES TAX! shuttle. These diagnostic instruments were also used to study the interaction of the vehicle and ionisphere with the electron beam. Part of the mission involved the crew lifting the PDP out of electrical voltage relative to the m 23 COLOR CONSOLE that was put together by the University of Iowa, was also carried in the Columbias third venture into . testbeds vehicle, and not deemed cost effective for the expensive modification required to make it flightworthy for orbital operations, and is used for tests and simulation only. Although currently the University itself isnt planning a repeat of the VCAP experiment or any other Plasma Diagnostic Package (PDP), Queen King $334 ....... 449 BEDROOM Headboard, Night-stand and Chest set VJhy Elott Try (Us! 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