Feb. 11, 1984: The tenth Shuttle flight finally lands one at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

*****

Just after midnight, EST, on February 11, 1984, we hear wake-up music sent up by Mission Control:  “In the Mood,” performed by Contraband, a group composed of employees at the Johnson Space Center.

“Good morning, Challenger”

“Good morning, Houston.”

Well, I guess it is technically morning, the morning of our return.  Can we achieve what STS-7 failed to do due to weather, make the first landing on the 3-mi. long runway at the Kennedy Space Center?  We only have one shot at it, a single landing opportunity just after dawn.  And the Cape is reporting fog.  We’re the crew of STS-11 (41B):  Vance Brand, “Hoot” Gibson, Ron McNair, Bruce McCandless and Bob Stewart.

As we move into action on the flight deck, we observe, “Looks like another nice day on the west coast of Australia.  We’re looking straight down on it.”

We’re given the latest weather.  Winds are expected to stir the air and break up the fog.

Sure enough soon enough, John Young flying the Shuttle Training Aircraft over the runway. reports the fog is light and breaking up.  We receive the word:  “Be advised that current Cape weather is clear and 30 mi. visibility.”

“Super.  Hey, thank John for getting that kind of weather.”

We’re given a go to close the payload bay doors at about 2:30 a.m. EST.  Still have 4 hrs. before the deorbit burn.  We transition to the entry checklist, and begin counting down to ignition.

The burn, lasting a few seconds less than 3 min., takes place as we approach the west coast of Australia on the start our 127th orbit.  Onward, we fly just north of the Hawaiian Islands, and hit Entry Interface, the point where we enter the first tenuous grasps of the atmosphere.  We begin to see a faint flashing glow out the windows that quickly builds into the fires of reentry and enter communications blackout.  Into the atmosphere now as we sweep across the Pacific and pass near Guaymas Mexico.  We pass just south of Corpus Christi, Texas, and out over the Gulf of Mexico, where our 15-min. blackout ends, 12 min. until landing.  Yes, it’s only taken 15 min. to fly from east of Hawaii to a point just south of New Orleans.  The Shuttle’s computers fly a series of sweeping S turns to reduce our “energy.”  We gain our first good look at Florida in the St. Petersburg area.  My God it feels like we’re coming in hot, faster than we should, but the instruments show we’re right on the landing profile.

We pass just south of Orlando at 83,000 ft. going Mach 2.5.  Range — 70 mi. to the Shuttle Landing Facility located 5 mi. from the pad from which we launched.  Now only 5 min. until touchdown.   We pass just south of Titusville and over the Indian River that separates it from the Kennedy Space Center.  We’re now at 50,000 ft., about 30 mi. to go.

We pass over the space center, out over the shore, making a wide loop to lineup with Runway 15.  Altitude, 20,000 ft.  We’re flying what we call the Heading Alignment Circle.  We approach the runway from northwest to southeast.  We initiate the pre-final phase, 9 mi. until landing.  We’re on final, lined up with runway.

The capcom calls, “Challenger, Houston, you look good rolling out on final.  Calm surface winds.”  

Light fog out ahead; we easily can see through it.  Approaching the runway threshold, at 500 ft. altitude, we see a small flock of birds right in front of us.  We collide with one of them.  The poor thing leaves some feathers near the windshield. The little bird of course has no effect on our landing.

Gear down and locked.  Main gear touchdown, and we lower the nose.  We’re rolling down the runway.  

“OK, Houston, wheels are stopped.”  We put her down just a half inch from the runway’s centerline!  It’s 7:16 a.m. EST.  Our flight of 7 days, 23 hrs., 15 min. and 55 sec. is over.

“Roger that, Challenger.  Welcome home, fantastic job.”

  Welcome to 1984.  We’ve cleared the way for routine landings at Kennedy, which will save days of turnaround time the ferry flights from California consume.  We’ll need those days as the flight rate accelerates.