On one of the BA Blogs, in the coments was a link to this spoof movie clip. (Apparent bad language warning )

1) could that happen
2) The damage to the tail, if that happened could it be repaired or is this total write off

3) Is there a real emergancy landing site in South Africa

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4) How would they recover the shuttle from where it ends up?

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Moderations in purple

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I can't access the clip, so can't tell you about the likelihood of the incident occurring or the damage to the tail, however, I can tell you that there is indeed an emergency landing site in South Africa. There is a list of them here:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...ty/sts-els.htm

As for getting the shuttle back, I imagine they would do it the same way they bring it back to the cape from a landing at Edwards Air Force Base: piggy-back it on a modified 747.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

I wonder why there´s none in South America. Sweden?! It would be a very unlikely place for a landing (except, I think in high inclination military missions). There´s a clustering in the Indian Ocean with several options, but you have a void between Polynesia (!) and South Africa in the southern hemisphere. Go figure... A propos, we have a 5 km runway very near to my place, with all conveniences of civilization, case one of those NASA lurkers are reading this.

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With a range of about 1000 miles? I doubt it, and I don't think they would dare try mid-air refueling with the shuttle on board. Flight characteristics are bad enough as it is.
I would think it would go on an Atlantic cruise instead... Better food.

I wouldn't be surprised if they cut it apart and crated it. From what I understand, the stresses of high speed turns needed to land a shuttle after an aborted launch would compromise the integrity of the airframe to the point it would never be certed to fly again.

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They had at one point a landing stripe ready on Easter Island, near Rana Kao. at 5km long it's Chile's longest landing runway. I am not sure if it is still considered an active landing site however.

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The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

They did manage to send Enterprise and 747 on a European tour in the eary 1980s, so the Atlantic can be crossed without unmanageable hops. IIRC, a version of the Mate-Demate Device (i.e. the big gantry) can be disassembled and fit into a C-5. Easter Island was the most interesting alternative site, because it's an awful long haul to the Chilean coast.

One big factor in the geographic distribution of emergency (prepared) sites is that most such landings would result from problems immediately after launch (engine out at just the wrong time, for example), which means there wouldn't be much need for sites south of the continental US. And Easter Island? That dates from the time there was still plans for poar-orbit shuttle missions launched from Vanderberg Air Force Base on the California coast, headed south over the Pacific.

I do not know why the link is no longer working, luckily I downloaded a copy of the movie before it went off line.

The spoof movie has the shuttle making an emergency landing in downtown Capetown along some very straight highway with people and trucks jumping out of the way. The tail is ripped off when the shuttle goes under the bridge. It comes to rest by a pay and display parking bay.

I did wonder if there was a highway big enough and long enough for the shuttle as portrayed in the spoof movie, and why would they land there instead of a normal air field I suppose this is just to make it look really funny.

I did notice that one of our RAF bases is rigged as an emergency landing site.

Q do astronauts carry passports with them incase they do have to land on foreign soil?

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You peaked my curiosity (Sorry to go a little off topic). I started looking this up to find details, and am having a hard time finding the following:
What kind of differences does the Enterprise have from the others? (any weight differences?)
What kind of hops were made? (I see references to Goose Bay, but there had to be other places)
It must have been some feat if Fulton recieved an Exceptional Service Medal for that flight only.

IIRC, the Enterprise was never made flight ready, the biggest difference was that it had no working engines. I would guess that would make it lighter, but I don't known.

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All moderation in purple

That sounds a little like a scene from the movie, The Core. Could that be what this is?

um, no. That's kind of a silly question.

It can be an issue however. You don't always know where you'll land indeed. Of course if a space shuttle lands somewhere most people would figure that it most probably is the original crew that's inside, but I vaguely remember a story of one of the first Russian manned flights in which the returned cosmonaut had to identify himself to a nearby (armed?) farmer.

But in general and with the current state of manned space flight, you can find out very rapidly who's standing in front of you as the names of returning astronauts are in the newspapers .

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Not really.

From the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies aka "The 1967 Outer Space Treaty":

Article V:

States Parties to the Treaty shall regard astronauts as envoys of mankind in outer space and shall render to them all possible assistance in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing on the territory of another State Party or on the high seas. When astronauts make such a landing, they shall be safely and promptly returned to the State of registry of their space vehicle.

And in case you're wondering, South Africa is a signatory.

For the ones who've seen "finding Nemo":

I got this vision of a shuttle making an emergency landing somewhere. You see a head in the crowd turn. "mine". *crowd follows*

minemineminemimineminemimimineminemiminemiminemine

A good thing there's the outer space treaty .

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I think the shuttle requires at a minimum a very long runway with an ILS (Instrument Landing System). In fact the preferred abort sites have a Microwave Scanning Beam Landing System -- only a few runways world wide have that.

The shuttle has significant "crossrange" capability if 800 nautical miles either side of the ground track (1600 nm total). In an emergency de-orbit situation as depicted in the video, it's very likely it could reach a valid emergency landing site.

If for some reason it could not, I doubt the landing would be survivable. I'm pretty sure the mission rules in such case call for a bailout, not a stunt pilot landing.

We tend to call the MLS the "video2000 of the landing systems".

(the better system that just didn't make it)

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It looks like the link is back up, if you want to see the movie.

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dead link here

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

According to the root domain spikehumour.com