Collin's 1st Op

The Western Range was standing by today to support a contingency landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, if they were unable to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Florida weather prevented a KSC landing, so the Shuttle had to land at Edwards AFB, CA. Vandenberg's mission is launching rockets into space, so the base has several radar dishes for tracking objects coming in and out of the atmosphere. Because of this, NASA relies on information received from our equipment when the Shuttle has to land at Edwards. It just so happens that Collin was scheduled as the primary Range Control Officer, and got to sit on console in the huge Operations Control Center and be a part of this mission. Even though he says he didn't really do anything, it's still considered his first operation as a Range Control Officer and it's cool that it turned out to be a Shuttle landing! Above is a picture of Atlantis' landing today.