Columbia makes a perfect re-entry after shortened flight

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 1

Columbia makes a perfect re-entry after shortened flight

NZPA Edwards Air Force Base The spaceship Columbia crowned a busy but troubled mission yesterday, bursting like a silver wraith through mottled Californian skies to its second flawless desert landing.

With Colonel Joe Engle in command and Captain Richard Truly beside him, the winged shuttle hit Earth right on time, right on target — the oil-black centreline on the Rogers dry lake in California’s Mojave Desert.

“Touchdown. Welcome home,” said Mission Control.

For Colonel Engle and Captain Truly it was a perfect ending for. a troubled mission, halted three days early only because an electrical generator broke down. Crowds estimated at 220,000 cheered as Columbia passed overhead on its final approach to runway 23. The astronauts' headed quickly for home in Houston while technicians swarmed over the first ship to go into space twice. After two hours, the Columbia was towed, to its hangar. . “The bird is real .solid,” said Colonel Engle as the 106-tonne ship emerged from a 17-minute blackout and sped across the Pacific at five times the speed of sound. When the shuttle becomes operational after two more test flights, it- will be a delivery van, hauling up satellites, scientific cargo, and secret defence projects..

“It is a great day for the United States and the Space programme,” said Mr James Beggs, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.) in introducing the astronauts after their quick physical examination.

“Sorry we got down here a couple of days early,” Colonel Engle said, apologising for the short flight. He called the cut in flight time “kind of heartbreaking” because “we had a good flight, a fun flight.” Captain Truly said: “The real hero of the day is sitting out there bn the lakebed. That is some kind of flying machine ... I think it is going to lead us to things we don’t even dream of yet.”

Mr Michael Weeks, the acting associate administrator of N.A.S.A., said none of the ship’s thermal protection tiles came off on re-entry, as they had on the first flight. “I just rate the over-all success of this, mission in the 90 to 95 per cent class,” Mr Weeks said.

Mr Weeks told a postlanding news .conference that each of the shuttle’s four scheduled test flights was a learning experience, and the

date for the third launch had not been decided “at this juncture.” The crew of the third flight had been selected, but the.two names would not be announced for a while.

Experts working with the scientific experiments aboard the Columbia were “ecstatic with their results,” said the Flight Director, Mr Don Puddy. “On all of the experiments we were able to get some data,” despite the short mission.

Overcast skies and high winds had been a worry to the end, and for some moments the ship appeared to dart in and out of the clouds, waving cotton puffs on contrails, like a ghost from the heavens. There was one last plunge through one last wisp into a desert sky of brilliant blue.

The landing was 54 hours, 13 minutes, and 10 seconds after the launch from Cape Canaveral.

The second flight of N.A.S.A.’s Space Transportation System, America’s grand hope for a future in Space, ended with the pilots doing a satisfied walk-around their ship, 42 minutes after touchdown.

As the shuttle moved across the runway, a sonic boom rolled across the desert, and the crowd alongside Rogers Dry Lake whooped and applauded. The Columbia then made a looping turn, drove for home, and touched down creating its own small desert dust storm. A 20-unit recovery convoy converged on the Columbia with “sniffers” to detect noxious gases, and air hoses to cool the crew.

The shuttle, the first craft to make a return trip to space, came home like a giant glider, starting descent an hour before touchdown with a three-minute burst of two engines that broke its orbital speed 252 km above the Indian Ocean.

In minutes, the shuttle slowed from 27,900 km/h to about 25,750 km/h and dipped into the upper edge of the atmosphere where gravity gripped the vehicle and protective tiles began to glow with re-entry heat. The decision to land de-

pended on a last-minute weather watch, but Colonel John Young, who headed last April’s triumphant inaugural mission, flew the Columbia’s path several times and pronounced conditions just fine. Officials had hoped to have the shuttle land in desert crosswinds, but decided against it with an hour to go because the winds were gusting to almost 34 km/h. The crosswind landing would have tested Columbia’s ability to end future missions on a smaller runway at windy Cape Canaveral. The ship dropped fast over its descent track — north of Australia, across the northern tip of New Guinea, south of Guam, north of Wake Island, north of Midway, then 1287 km north of Hawaii and across the Californian coast.