Jet Carrying Shuttle Returns to Edwards After Fire Warning

The Boeing 747 carrying space shuttle Atlantis back to Florida on Saturday turned around and made an emergency landing because of an engine fire warning light on the jetliner, a NASA spokesman said.

There were no signs of fire or smoke on any of the engines, and inspectors were treating the incident as a maintenance problem, said John Campbell Martin, chief of external affairs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Dryden Flight Research Center.

There was no damage reported to the jetliner or the shuttle, Martin said.

The plane took off at 12:55 p.m., Martin said. The warning light for the right inboard engine flashed on five minutes later and the airliner jettisoned fuel and made its landing back at Edwards about 1:10 p.m., Martin said.

He said he believed the abrupt turnaround was unprecedented.

“It’s not common, that’s for sure,” he said.

The orbiter was to be ferried from Edwards to the Kennedy Space Center. The trip has been tentatively rescheduled for Thursday, Martin said.

About 10 people were on board, including the 747 pilot, Gordon Fullerton, an astronaut and research flier for NASA.

“We really wanted to deliver the aircraft to Kennedy in the shortest amount of time,” Martin said. “An interruption like this is not the way you want to end the mission.”