Winds Possibly a Factor in Shuttle Blowout
Astronaut Karol J. Bobko’s battle with crosswinds that pushed the space shuttle Discovery 50 feet off course during its landing may have caused him to lock its brakes and a tire to blow, space agency officials said Saturday.
Discovery, pushed by 10 m.p.h. crosswinds, touched down 20 feet left of the runway’s center line, and Bobko, the mission commander, applied the right brakes as a corrective measure. At one point, officials said, the shuttle strayed 50 feet from the center of the 300-foot-wide runway.
Ken Colley, chief shuttle mechanic, said one set of brakes on the right landing gear locked about 130 feet from the point where the shuttle stopped, and about five feet before it stopped the second set of right-hand brakes seized.
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