Queensland\u2019s Amberley RAAF base has been placed on stand-by in case of an emergency landing by Shuttle Discovery. <\/p>\n
Top-secret plans for Queensland\u2019s involvement in the event of a mishap have been revealed to The Sunday Mail as NASA waits to launch its first shuttle mission since the Columbia tragedy in 2003.\n<\/p>\n
An Australian Defence Force spokeswoman has confirmed \u201csuitable arrangements\u201d are in place to allow the 100-tonne spacecraft to land at home of Australia\u2019s F1-11 fighter bombers. <\/font> <\/p>\n But the spokeswoman said security reasons prevented the release of details. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cIn the unlikely event of an emergency, it is possible the defence force may be asked to provide assistance,\u201d she said. <\/font><\/p>\n \u201cUnder Australia\u2019s international obligations, Australia is required to provide any reasonable assistance to ensure the safe exploration of space.\u201d <\/font> <\/p>\n The secret plans caught Queensland Premier Peter Beattie off-guard. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know the details, but that\u2019s obviously a matter that would be handled by the Federal Government,\u201d said a surprised Mr Beattie. <\/font> <\/p>\n An Australian Defence Force source said: \u201cThis is the first time Amberley has been included in an emergency landing scenario. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cThey are very secretive, they would prefer to keep it as quiet as they can. Only a few people high up the chain know details. As part of the ANZUS Treaty, when they call out, we act.\u201d <\/font> <\/p>\n A NASA spokesman said an emergency landing in Australia would be \u201cvery last-minute\u201d. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cIt would only be in an extreme emergency, some drastic situation in which it was de-orbiting and couldn\u2019t make it back to the US,\u201d he said. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cBut it is better to come down on a military runway than a highway or a field. <\/font> <\/p>\n \u201cMilitary bases are set up to handle heavier aircraft and have longer runways for huge transport planes.\u201d <\/font> <\/p>\n The shuttle launch from Florida\u2019s Cape Canaveral was yesterday postponed indefinitely as engineers worked to repair a faulty ECO sensor.<\/font> <\/p>\n Amberley is among dozens of emergency landing sites globally set up by negotiation with the US State Department.<\/font> <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Queensland\u2019s Amberley RAAF base has been placed on stand-by in case of an emergency landing by Shuttle Discovery. Top-secret plans for Queensland\u2019s involvement in the event of a mishap have been revealed to The Sunday Mail as NASA waits to launch its first shuttle mission since the Columbia tragedy in 2003. An Australian Defence Force […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[],"class_list":["post-42347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42347"}],"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=42347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}