In order for #NASA to test #hardware and #software to allow an #interplanetary #spacecraft to select a landing site amid a field of hazards, it built a “#lunar #hazard field” was built at the end of the Shuttle Landing Facility, creating a #MoonScape in #Florida..
The Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology, ALHAT, was to use #LIDAR to scan the surface and identify safe landing zones and steer a landing spacecraft toward safety and away from danger.
It was placed on the #methane-burning Project #Morpheus vehicle meant to test methane propellants.
Unfortunate Morpheus exploded during testing before #ALHAT could get data, but the experiment was rebuilt. # AutonomousLandingAndHazardAvoidanceTechnology, #KennedySpaceCenter, #KSC, #ShuttleLandingFacility, #ProjectMorpheus, #Landscape, #LandscapePhotography, #Photography, #Photograph, #Photo
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When the time came to take #NASA’s Space #Shuttle #Discovery to the Smithsonian near Washington, the Shuttle Carrier #Aircraft was employed, as it usually was when the #SpaceShuttle needed to move.
This required the #Orbiter to be moved inside a truss-work structured called the Mate-Demate #Device, lifted up by cranes, and the #Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Airfcraft moved underneath for the Shuttle to be secured for transport.
An aerodynamic tail cone makes the #SCA easier to control.
The #MDD is next to the Shuttle Landing Facility.
#SpaceShuttleOrbiter, #SpaceShuttleDiscovery, #MateDemateDevice, #MDD, #ShuttleCarierAircraft, #Boeing747, #SCA, #ShuttleLandingFacility, #SLF, #Aviation, #AviationPhotography, #Spacecraft, #Photograph, #Photography, #Photo
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#USAF / #Spaceforce / #KSC / #USA: "#X37B orbital test vehicle concludes sixth successful mission" "The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (#OTV6), the U.S. Space Force’s unmanned, reusable #spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center #ShuttleLandingFacility on Nov. 12, 2022, at 05:22 a.m.": https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article/3217077/x-37b-orbital-test-vehicle-concludes-sixth-successful-mission/