Shuttle Returns, Sets Off Southland Burglar Alarms : Sonic Booms Roll Across Heart of L.A.

Laden with scientific treasures from a week of orbital research, Challenger brought seven astronauts and 26 animals down safely in the desert today--triggering sonic booms that set off burglar alarms in the Southland as it descended.

The stubby-winged space shuttle touched down on the center line of a dry lake bed runway at 9:11 a.m., completing a flight of 2.9 million miles and 109 orbits.

“Challenger, welcome home!” Mission Control called out as commander Robert F. Overmyer brought the shuttle to a stop. “Nice job, Bob!”

The spacecraft’s dive to a landing carried it over the heart of Los Angeles at about three times the speed of sound, triggering a double sonic boom that rolled across the city. Police said they were flooded with calls about burglar alarms set off by rattling windows.

Long Beach police said they also were swamped by emergency calls.

Sand Rather Than Concrete

Officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided on the California landing, on sand, rather than on the concrete runway of Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Fla., because of problems with the last shuttle landing there.

Tucked into the Spacelab 3 module in Challenger’s cargo bay is enough research data to fill 50,000 volumes of 200 pages each, said Spacelab mission manager Joseph Cremin. There also are miles of film and more than 3 million frames of video data, some of which will be studied by scientists frame by frame, he said.

Two small squirrel monkeys and 24 rats, riding in special cages in Spacelab 3, were to be removed quickly and flown to Cape Canaveral, where they will be examined and tested. The rats will be sacrificed and dissected by medical researchers hoping to learn from them more about the effects of weightlessness. The monkeys will be spared.

“All 26 of the little critters are in good shape right now,” said Burton Edelson, NASA’s director of science and applications.

Groups of demonstrators were at Edwards Air Force Base, protesting the use of the animals and the plans for the rats.

‘Very Much Concerned’

Edelson said NASA’s handling of the animals was approved by several animal rights groups.

“We are very, very much concerned for the health and safety and treatment of the animals,” he said at a post-landing news conference.

Though the landing went smoothly, there was one false alarm two hours before the descent began, when the astronauts received a warning that the 60-foot-long, clamshell-like cargo bay doors had failed to close properly. Pilot Frederick D. Gregory focused a television camera on the four suspect latches and told Mission Control he believed that they had locked and that instruments in the cockpit were giving false readings.

“OK, Fred, we’re satisfied,” said capsule communicator Dick Richards. “Go ahead with the rest of the de-orbit preparations.”

Overmyer triggered powerful rocket engines over the Indian Ocean to slow Challenger and settle it into a long glide toward the California lake bed.