A million extra dollars

In over two decades of flying, shuttles landed 61 times at Kennedy, which was designated the main landing site in 1991. Early in the program, orbiters commonly landed at Edwards if anything discouraged an East Coast touchdown. The last Edwards landing was a mission with the shuttle Endeavor in June 2002. Only one flight, a 1982 mission by Columbia, landed at White Sands, NASA8217;s last choice. High winds whipped up so much sand and dust that it took workers weeks to clean the craft of finely powdered gypsum.

Kennedy Space Center has become the favored site over time, as NASA prepares shuttles for flight there and so landing in Florida saves the space agency at least one million dollars and at least a week of processing time. When the shuttle lands at Edwards, it has to be ferried back to Florida atop one of NASA8217;s two specially adapted Boeing 7478217;s.

Thus the decision to land in Florida means that it will be impossible for NASA to launch the shuttle Atlantis in September, as it had planned, since Discovery will be pressed into service as a possible rescue vehicle. That launch would have required having what Dr Griffin, the NASA administrator, called a 8216;8216;eureka moment8217;8217; leading to a quick fix for the foam problem. Discovery and Atlantis cannot be prepared for flight again in time. The next window opens in November. NYT