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One REALLY Long Runway for Rent
DarkNemesis618 writes "NASA is looking into putting its 15,000 foot runway up for rent at the Kennedy Space Center. The runway, which is used for Space Shuttle landings, will soon be used less and less as the Shuttle fleet is set to be retired in 2010. The first private venture was seen last month when Steve Fossett took off at KSC in Virgin Atlantic's experimental plane. One promising deal in the works comes from Zero Gravity Corp. which offers customers a few seconds of weightlessness on a Boeing 727-200. The shuttle runway, built in the 1970s never got the use it was expected to, and with the next generation of space vehicles using parachutes to land, the runway is going to have even less use."
They should smash it and auction off the pieces. It'd probably pay for itself.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Perhaps a bunch of us could get together, and rent it out once a year -- ala Burningman, Xday, and the like. Perhaps us Science geeks, and Sci-Fi freaks could show-up for a weekend of partying, to celebrate spacetravel, and the persuits to get there. Me, I just want another excuse to party.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
Who's up for getting a '75 Chevy Nova and some RATO packs!
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Maybe with a runway that size I could actually land on it. Heck, all runways should be that long, so that planes won't "overshoot" the runway like you see in the news.
x86, oh yes, I'm pro.
hopscotch tournament?
I know you want to.
15 000 feet = 4 572 meter
Alien landing strip.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I remember when i was younger the excitement of thinking that with the shuttles the potential of space flight would only grow from point on. The pure simple idea that pretty much in my life time there would come a time when space flight would become routine. When there would be a spacecraft lifting off once or even twice in the same week.
Unfortunately the shuttles never got there. The reasons are many and varied, and ultimately stupid. The ramp up the potential never happened. I can remember a time when NASA was considering the possibility of many many more shuttles.
Its sad really.
We (humanity as a whole) should by now have a much greater presense in space. The technology should have advanced to a far greater state than it has at time time. We are pretty much still stuck in the same place as we were in the late 1970's. The shuttles tech has seen little change from the 1970's tech that was in place when they were first drawn up.
The really comical part is at this point we are planning to more forward, by going backwards to tech that predates the shuttle program. Admittedly the shuttles didn't work out, they were probably to for4ward thinking when they were first developed. We are now in a place where we do not have the time, or perhaps even the desire to back to the drawing board and bring to bear the full weight of out current technology.
The End result we will continue in space, however it will continue as a lackluster effort.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Along similar lines, I reckon that NASA should sell advertising space on the side of launch vehicles, etc, to help cover costs of launch. How much would (e.g.) McDonalds be willing to pay for a frickin' huge yellow 'M' on the side of a rocket? I'd bet a million or three $'s, at least. (After all, companies pay millions for 30s during superbowl commercials...) To a small science mission on a budget of a couple of hundred million, this would be a really big deal, IMO.
Just my 2c...
Google Maps link
I wonder if the Mythbusters could afford to rent it for a month or so.
I'm sure there's something cool that Adam & Jamie could test there.
Something dangerous.
Nearly three miles of empty pavement sounds like a lot of (pretty safe) fun.
Pick One: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stremler/sigs/sigs.html (Note - disable Javascript first!)
Despite being one really huge runway there is something else I learned while visiting the Kennedy Space Center. The entire runway complete in a single pouring Essentially it is one gigantic slab of concrete with no cracks in it.
... than underused shuttle facilities at KSC is the Air Force shuttle facility on the west coast, which cost $6 billion, and was never used at all.
Finally the government operating a natural role as the infrastructure monopoly investing in the startup of private American industry. NASA overall has produced probably the best ROI on any US government investment in the 20th Century. And the US space industry is at the crossroads for going live, both positioned to deliver services and facing foreign competition.
Let's spend hundreds of billions of the dollars that we currently mostly waste on Pentagon corporate welfare that makes the US feared around the world instead spent on NASA investment in infrastructure to support private corporations. Let's get the US aerospace industry to compete by raising private investment to fund competitions for achieving goals like Lunar power stations and manned Martian research bases. Let's get NASA to become solely a policy, design, testing and certification agency, and subsidize American corporations to pass our highest criteria ahead of foreign ones.
Let's take it to the stars!
--
make install -not war
The speeds they could reach on a circuit like that would be hair-raising, the overtaking opportunities would be superb, and you'd be able to get more spectators in. If NASA got a percent cut on the ticket sales, they'd be able to fund all of their real work, and so everyone would be happy.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
KTTS "NASA Shuttle Landing Facility" details here:
Runway Information
Runway 15/33
Dimensions: 15000 x 300 ft. / 4572 x 91 m
Surface: concrete/grooved, in good condition
Weight bearing capacity:
Single wheel: 120000 lbs
Double wheel: 220000 lbs
Double tandem: 500000 lbs
Dual double tandem: 800000 lbs
Runway edge lights: non-standard
NSTD HIRL; 85' FR RWY EDGE.
RUNWAY 15 RUNWAY 33
Gradient: 0.0 0.0
Traffic pattern: left left
Markings: precision, in good condition precision, in good condition
Approach lights: ALSF2: standard 2,400 foot high intensity approach lighting system with centerline sequenced flashers (category II or III) ALSF2: standard 2,400 foot high intensity approach lighting system with centerline sequenced flashers (category II or III)
Centerline lights: yes
CL RWY 15-33 NSTD, 10,000'. yes
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cribbed from airnav.com [sweet site]
-- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.