Shuttle Landing Facility
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The Shuttle Landing Facility ( SLF) is an airfield on the Kennedy Space Center, which was built by NASA to land the space shuttle over there.
The first landing of a U.S. space shuttle on the SLF was held on 11 February 1984. After the eight-day STS -41 - B, the Challenger went down on the slopes.
Train
The SLF has only a single runway which is 3.2 km northwest of the Vehicle Assembly Building. It is designated as Runway 15 or 33, depending on the fly from any direction (compass directions 150 ° and 330 °).
The foundation stone of the SLF was held in April 1974. After two years of construction, the plant was completed and put into operation by NASA.
The runway is made 4572.0 meters long and made of concrete. Since there is an extension of 304.8 meters at each end, the total length is 5181.6 meters, so that the SLF has one of the longest tracks in the world. The slope is 91.4 meters wide and provided on both sides with an asphalt strips each 15.2 meters wide. This was so compacted that it can bear the weight of the orbiter.
The concrete layer of the runway is 41 centimeters thick in the middle and falls off to the sides by three centimeters. Originally the track was continuously crisscrossed with grooves to ensure drainage of water when it rains. The grooves were six millimeters wide and deep and is applied at a distance of three centimeters. Later, the first 1070 meters were initially leveled on both ends of the runway until the entire track was smoothed in 1994. This was done in order to reduce the abrasion of the tire through the grooves.
At the southern end of the runway is a parking space ( 167.6 meters by 149.3 meters). In this is located in the northeast of the Mate / demate device called lift, with an orbiter is removed from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The park port is connected to a departure by Kennedy Parkway North. A little further south is the exit to the Orbiter Processing Facility.
Use
The runway is mainly due to the landing of the Space Shuttle known, but also to land shuttle crews before the start and the terminal countdown demonstration test. Also start from here a parabolic flight aircraft the KC -135 and carrier aircraft for missile Type Pegasus.