![\"Columbia's](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z318.jpg\" "\\"Columbia's")
Capable of handling all types and sizes of aircraft, one of the first major visitors was the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with Columbia riding on top in March 24, 1979.<\/p>\nThe historic Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has taken another step forward in achieving its future goal of accommodating a range of commercial spacecraft. Although deals are yet to be completed, NASA and Space Florida have begun negotiations relating to a partnership agreement for the commercial operation of the runway.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
KSC\u2019s SLF:<\/p>\n
The SLF opened for operation in 1976, after the 15,000 feet long and 300 feet wide concrete runway was designed for hosting the return of Space Shuttle orbiters during its 30 year program.<\/p>\n
Capable of handling all types and sizes of aircraft, one of the first major visitors was the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with Columbia riding on top in March 24, 1979.<\/p>\n
Looking a little worse for wear \u2013 due to the amount of missing Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles \u2013 Columbia arrived at her new home, escorted by NASA astronaut Deke Slayton in a T-38.<\/p>\n
The touchdown of the SCA with Columbia was to be a prelude of the orbiters landing at the SLF after completing their missions in space. However, orbiters landed at the Edwards Air Force Base in California \u2013 and once at White Sands in New Mexico \u2013 until Challenger\u2019s return from STS-41B in 1984.<\/p>\n
Challenger landed safely on SLF\u2019s Runway on February 11, with a rollout distance was 10,815 feet over 67 seconds.<\/p>\n
NASA mission updates (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n All further landings were planned to occur at Edwards Air Force Base until the problem could be satisfactorily resolved via the implementation of nose wheel steering.<\/p>\n The SLF was brought back into rotation in 1990, which involved the first landing of Atlantis on the KSC runway. With her STS-38 mission tracking an Edwards landing on November 19, crosswind violations in California resulted in a one day delay and a landing in Florida.<\/p>\n Discovery and Endeavour both left the SLF one final time \u2013 atop of the SCA \u2013 en route to their retirement homes.<\/p>\n The SLF wasn\u2019t an exclusive strip for Shuttle, with a range of aircraft using the runway \u2013 from Zero G flights, through to the arrival of satellites and hardware for processing ahead of their launches.<\/p>\n However, the future of the SLF has always targeted future commercial spacecraft, as part of KSC\u2019s multi-user ambitions.<\/p>\n With the news NASA has selected Space Florida, the aerospace economic development agency for the state of Florida, for negotiations toward a partnership agreement to maintain and operate the SLF, that possibility took a step forward on Friday.<\/p>\n NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the director of KSC, Robert Cabana, announced the selection during a news conference Friday at Kennedy\u2019s Visitor Complex in Florida.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also continues to demonstrate NASA\u2019s commitment and progress in building a strong commercial space industry so that American companies are providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and other low-Earth orbit destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n The deal came after NASA issued a request for information to industry in 2012 to identify new and innovative ways to use the facility for current and future commercial and government mission activities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SLF provides a unique capability for new and expanding suborbital launch providers, unmanned aerial vehicle operators and other aerospace-related businesses to thrive in a location that maximizes the resources of the space center and Eastern Range operations,\u201d said Space Florida President Frank DiBello.<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to working with NASA and KSC leadership in the coming months to finalize the details of this transaction in a way that will provide the greatest benefit to incoming commercial aerospace businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Should NASA and Space Florida complete the deal, the organization will be able to negotiate with a range of companies in relation to utilizing the SLF.<\/p>\n Another spaceplane, but of an orbital nature, also has KSC\u2019s facilities firmly in its sights, as Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC)\u2019s Dream Chaser continues to push forward in its aspiration of becoming a crew transportation vehicle for NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).<\/p>\n SNC\u2019s own simulation videos portray Dream Chaser landing at the SLF.<\/p>\n Stratolaunch Systems also show the SLF in their notional simulation videos, as much as they will debut their air-launch system from Mojave in California.<\/p>\n Other companies of various sizes and ambitions may also be attracted by undisclosed incentives Space Florida may be able to provide, should their deal with NASA be concluded.<\/p>\n KSC\u2019s Center Director Bob Cabana noted he is looking forward to working with the organization to achieve that deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThe SLF is a significant asset for the center that ties our historical past to the vision of the future,\u201d added Mr. Cabana. \u201cI had the privilege of landing two space shuttle orbiters at the facility and look forward to beginning discussions with Space Florida on a future partnership that will fully utilize this unique resource.\u201d<\/p>\n (Images: via L2 and NASA).<\/p>\n (Click here: http:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/ \u2013 to view how you can support NSF\u2019s hosting costs and access over 5,500 gbs of content available on no other site).<\/p>\n *Remember to use the social media tabs below to pass this article on to your friends*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The historic Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has taken another step forward in achieving its future goal of accommodating a range of commercial spacecraft. Although deals are yet to be completed, NASA and Space Florida have begun negotiations relating to a partnership agreement for the commercial operation of the runway. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[970,7766,9058,9004,2489,9060],"class_list":["post-39817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dream-chaser","tag-ksc","tag-lynx","tag-slf","tag-stratolaunch","tag-xcor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Discovery's](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z422.jpg\" "\\"Discovery's")
The fifth orbiter landing at the SLF \u2013 concluding STS-51D \u2013 proved to be more dramatic, as Discovery suffered extensive brake damage and a blown tire, due to the harsh conditions of the KSC runway, an off-centerline landing, and the inability to steer the vehicle via the nose landing gear.<\/p>\n![\"SLF](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z68.jpg\" "\\"SLF")
It was Atlantis that marked the final Shuttle landing, when she completed her STS-135 mission by gliding into the SLF for a touchdown in the dark on July 21, 2011.<\/p>\n![\"Russian](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z710.jpg\" "\\"Russian")
The most recent SLF landing of note was a Russian Antonov 124, which brought payload nose fairings from Switzerland for an Atlas V rocket scheduled to launch a US Navy Recon Satellite on July 19th.<\/p>\n![\"All](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z69.jpg\" "\\"All")
\u201cThis agreement will continue to expand Kennedy\u2019s viability as a multi-user spaceport and strengthen the economic opportunities for Florida and the nation,\u201d noted General Bolden.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
\n
![\"Lynx](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z104.jpg\" "\\"Lynx")
Potential suitors range from the suborbital \u2013 such as XCOR Aerospace \u2013 who were already understood to be close to arranging a deal to set up a base at KSC for the evolving versions of their Lynx suborbital spaceplane.<\/p>\n![\"Dream](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z112.jpg\" "\\"Dream")
Although Dream Chaser will launch from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V, it may be processed at KSC in one of the two vacant Orbiter Processing Facilities (OPFs), which in turn would marriage the use of the SLF as an ideal landing site at the end of their missions.<\/p>\n![\"Stratolaunch](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Z922.jpg\" "\\"Stratolaunch")
Stratolaunch \u2013 the pairing of a huge carrier aircraft and a highly capable Orbital rocket nicknamed Pegasus II \u2013 could utilize the SLF as their East Coast home, with the carrier aircraft taking off from the famous runway, releasing the Orbital rocket, prior to the aircraft then returning to the SLF for landing and processing for its next mission.<\/p>\n