To The Shuttle Landing Facility

The Mate/Demate Device

I had not long returned to the News Center, at 5 pm, when it was again time to submit to a car park dog sniff. This time we boarded the bus to go back to the Shuttle Landing Facility.

This was a different part of the airfield from where we had been for the landing.

Our new location was very close to the Mate-Demate Device, which is at a tarmac parking apron off the southern end of the runway. This lifts the shuttle Orbiter onto the back of NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (mate) or lifts it off (demate).

But we were not there to see this fascinating device. Had the Discovery been forced to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California this morning, we might have been allowed to come here in a few days time to watch the shuttle being lifted off the Boeing that would have ferried it across the continent.

Instead we were going to see the crew of the next space shuttle mission, STS 132, arrive in their T-38 jet trainer aircraft. They were flying in from Houston ahead of several days’ rehearsal. These rehearsals are called TCDT, the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test.

This arrival had been announced to be due at 7:30 pm. Again my habit of being there early paid off, for it was moved forward an hour and a half.

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