White Sands Space Harbor

White Sands Space Harbor
ICAO: none
Summary
Airport type		Military
Owner		US Air Force
Operator		NASA
Serves		White Sands Test Facility
Location		White Sands Missile Range
Elevation AMSL		3,913 ft / 1,192 m
Coordinates
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
17/35	35,000	10,700	Dry Lakebed
5/23	35,000	10,700	Dry Lakebed
2/20	12,800	3,900	Dry Lakebed

White Sands Space Harbor (WSSH) was a Space Shuttle runway, a test site for rocket research, and the primary training area used by NASA for Space Shuttle pilots practicing approaches and landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft and T-38 Talon aircraft. With its runways, navigational aids, runway lighting, and control facilities, it also stood continuously ready as a backup Shuttle landing site.^[1] WSSH is a part of the White Sands Test Facility, and is located approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Alamogordo, New Mexico, within the boundaries of the White Sands Missile Range.

Runway facilities

In 1976, NASA selected Northrup Strip as the site for shuttle pilot training. A second runway was added crossing the original north-south landing strip, and in 1979 both lakebed runways were lengthened to 35,000 ft (10,668 m), which includes 15,000 ft (4,572 m) usable runway with 10,000 ft (3048 m) extensions on either end, to allow the White Sands Space Harbor (WSSH) to serve as shuttle backup landing facility. While the Space Harbor was activated as a backup landing site for STS-116 due to poor weather conditions at both Edwards Air Force Base (high cross-winds) and Kennedy Space Center (clouds and rain), White Sands was only used for one landing of the space shuttle, that of the Space Shuttle Columbia on 30 March 1982 for STS-3.^[2]

Launch complex

The McDonnell Douglas DC-X of the USAF Single Stage Rocket Technology (SSRT) program was launched 1993-96 at the harbor.^[3][4]

References

NASA Space Shuttle (STS) Space Shuttle Programs Missions Crews Parts Orbiter Vehicle (OV) Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) External Tank (ET) Main Engine (SSME) Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) Reaction control system (RCS) Thermal protection system Booster separation motor Orbiters Enterprise Columbia Challenger Discovery Atlantis Endeavour Add-ons Spacelab (ESA) RMS (CSA) Extended Duration Orbiter Remote Controlled Orbiter Spacehab MPLM Sites Kennedy Space Center LC-39 Vandenberg SLC-6 Landing sites (Abort Landing Sites) Operations Missions (canceled) Crews Mission timeline rollbacks Abort modes Rendezvous pitch maneuver Testing Pathfinder (simulator) MPTA MPTA-ET Approach and Landing Tests Disasters Challenger disaster (report) Columbia disaster (report) Support Crawler-transporter Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Orbiter Processing Facility NASA recovery ship Shuttle Training Aircraft Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) Mate-Demate Device Special Deutschland-1 Getaway Special Teacher in Space Project Shuttle-Mir Hitchhiker Derivatives Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle (SDLV) Shuttle-Derived Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV) Jupiter Shuttle-C Ares Space Launch System (SLS) Replicas Independence (formerly Explorer) America Related Space Shuttle design process Inertial Upper Stage Payload Assist Module ISS Space Shuttle retirement Conroy Virtus Criticism of the Space Shuttle program