Feb 27 1981
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
DFRC reported on a dress rehearsal of Shuttle first-mission landing and postlanding activities on the dry lake bed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The crew that would act as recovery convoy used an orbiter mock-up, fitted with interfaces for ground connections, to practice postlanding safety and servicing procedures: simulated activities included testing for the presence of toxic or explosive vapors and gases and cooling the orbiter by circulating freon through its pipes and cool air through its ducts. To simulate the landing, a NASA T 38 jet descended along the planned flight path from 40,000 feet up, while test manager Deke Slayton kept in touch with the recovery convoy and with the flight director, Don Puddy, at JSC.
Meanwhile, astronauts John W. Young and Robert Crippen at JSC completed a full-scale flight rehearsal, going through the 54.5-hour mission in a computer-operated simulator. Flight directors monitored the mock mission as if it were the real thing. (DFRC Release 81-8; W Star, Feb 27/81, A-9)
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