Selection of landing airfields for shuttle orbiters with various crossranges Landing and Recovery Division internal note
Tables and maps of selected landing airfields for shuttle orbiters with various crossranges
Ferguson, J. E.↗
Engineering topics
Ferguson, J. E.
Publications and source records attributed to Ferguson, J. E..
Landing airfields selection with implicit designs and operations for shuttle orbiters
Selection of optimum airfields for support of landings from earth orbit of future land-landing type spacecraft
Ferguson, J. E.↗
Recovery considerations for possible high inclination long duration earth orbital missions
Problem areas are discussed and various solutions proposed. One of the major recovery problems encountered with missions having higher orbital inclinations than previous missions is the greater likelihood of severe weather conditions in the landing zones, especially if landing zones are optimized for orbital coverage considerations. Restricting the reentry window and increasing in-orbit wait times can partially eliminate the weather problem, but the possibility of emergency landings at higher latitudes still exists. It can be expected that the increased confidence level in spacecraft reliability that will exist by the time the high-inclination missions are flown will reduce the probabilities of an emergency landing in an unfavorable recovery location to a very low level.
Obriant, T. E.↗