NASA facility?

deyoung

deyoung

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Chris
Curious... this from Airnav:

Airport Operational Statistics
Aircraft operations: avg 66/week *
46% local general aviation
44% transient general aviation
6% military
4% air taxi
* for 12-month period ending 31 May 2005

This is for the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, and the numbers are from when the program was still going of course, but still surprising to me. Does this mean one could possibly get permission to do a touch and go or two there, just to say you did? I wouldn't have expected that, but maybe -- otherwise, what's all the traffic?

And, now that the shuttle program is over, does anyone know what the field is used for (if anything) now? I would seem to be a waste not to use a 15,000 x 300 runway for something... :)
 
I know it gets used for top speed car runs sometimes. That's where the Venom GT went 270mph
 
One of my neighbors landed there a couple months ago to get a tour of one of the facilities. If I recall, he had to get prior permission.
 
Those numbers are probably skewed or misleading. Anything that is not air carrier or military is probably being tallied by airnav as General Aviation. So NASA aircraft such as the shuttle trainer and the T-38s the astronauts flew around on might be getting logged as GA. Just a swag.
 
I’ve flown down it a few times. Typically they’ll clear you to 500’ occasionally lower but I’ve never asked to land.
 
Yeah, they won’t clear you to land, but a low pass is fine.

Prior to 9/11, you could do a low pass down to 500. After 9/11, they kept you away, but started allowing low passes again after the last shuttle flight in 2011. When I did it in 2012, the rule was no touch-down, but no specific altitude restriction. Others have since reported altitude restrictions, but low passes are still allowed.

You won’t get a landing authorization unless you have official business at the facility.
 
The astronaut corps is based in Houston. When the Shuttle was flying, there was a fair bit of astronaut traffic back-and-forth between JSC and KSC via T38. The Shuttle Training Aircraft were also in use at that time, and they flew many, many, approach training cycles to the SLF (KTTS). Bizjets carrying official visitors also frequently used the facility. It got a lot of use other than just Shuttle landings.

It's now managed by a private contractor, and you generally need to have official NASA business or a contractual agreement with the operator to use the facility today. As others have said, low approaches are commonly approved if the facility is not otherwise in use.
 
Just doing the math...

66 operations a week, given a 5 day work week means about 13 takeoffs or landings per day; 6 of those are aircraft considered "local" and based at the facility, 6 more are considered "transient" and based somewhere else and approximately 1 operation per day is conducted by either an air taxi or military aircraft.

As @Jim_R points out, there was a fair bit of astronaut traffic back-and-forth between JSC and KSC at the time. Seems to me they could probably do one round trip per day in either direction resulting in 2 transient ops (landing/takeoff) and 2 local ops (takeoff/landing) which leaves just a small handful of operations to account for that could easily be other training sorties.
 
They used to, and maybe still do, call it the "Cape Tour". They discontinued it for quite a while after 911, but have since resumed it. I think the limit you to 500 AGL over the runway.
I did manage to arrange for a landing there back in 2005 and I can tell you it took a ton of paperwork. But calling clearance for my "IFR to KSC Shuttle Landing Facility" was fun!
 
SkyDog58 said:
Those numbers are probably skewed or misleading. Anything that is not air carrier or military is probably being tallied by airnav as General Aviation. So NASA aircraft such as the shuttle trainer and the T-38s the astronauts flew around on might be getting logged as GA. Just a swag.
Click to expand...
Airnav doesn't "tally" anything. These numbers are reported by the airport manager to the FAA and are just regurgitated from the airport master record. Those NASA flights are indeed general aviation by the government definition.
 
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