The Space Shuttle Columbia is scheduled to land this Saturday at the
NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida to conclude mission STS-107.
It is unlikely that facilities and personnel at Edwards Air Force
Base, Calif., would be called up to support a potential landing
unless it is delayed until Monday, Feb. 3. Two landing opportunities
at Edwards occur on Monday at about 6:03 a.m. and 7:38 a.m. Pacific
time, with two additional opportunities on Tuesday morning, Feb. 4,
at times yet to be determined.
Media representatives should fax a request for accreditation on their
company letterhead to (661) 276-3566 or phone the NASA Dryden Public
Affairs Office at (661) 276-3449 no later than noon Friday, Jan. 31,
if they wish to cover a landing here. The request must include the
media representative’s name, affiliation, date of birth, place of
birth (city/state/country), driver’s license number and issuing
state, and the last six digits of the social security number. In
addition, media personnel must have two forms of photo
identification, including a driver’s license, and appropriate vehicle
registration and proof of insurance to gain access to Edwards AFB.
The Dryden public affairs office will be open about two hours before
the earliest landing opportunity. If necessary, media representatives
will be escorted from the west gate of Edwards Air Force Base to the
NASA center. There will be no media convoy to the shuttle landing
news media photography site for those landing opportunities that
occur before sunrise. However, a media convoy will leave the Dryden
public affairs office about two hours prior to the first post-sunrise
landing opportunity to escort media photographers, videographers and
reporters on a space-available basis to the media viewing site.
Broadcast media intending to use radio-frequency transmitting
equipment must have their equipment and frequencies inspected and
approved by the NASA Dryden frequency management office in advance.
Broadcast crews must have a copy of their transmitter licenses with
their equipment. There will be a mandatory full-up frequency test
approximately two hours prior to landing to avoid interference with
frequencies used by NASA or the Air Force. For further information,
please contact Dryden frequency manager Gary Barr at (661) 276-2717,
or the Edwards Air Force Base Control Center at (661) 277-3444. RF
transmissions, including cell phones, are NOT allowed from the media
viewing site.
For the latest update on the shuttle landing schedule, call (661) 276-2564.
