From: tomswift@cruzio.com   
      
   Henry, I think all of this applies to horizontal landing winged vehicles   
   only.  When you specify wings you are required to have multi kilometer   
   long runways, and that means a lot of maneuvering room for   
   contingencies.  For vertical landing vehicles the landings contingencies   
   for maneuvering  are much smaller.  In an emergency a football stadium   
   could be used, assuming no game was in progress : ).  If I recall   
   correctly the Vandenberg facility has been abandoned for Shuttle use, so   
   cross range for this facility is not an issue.   
      
   Mike Swift   
      
      
   In article ,   
    henry@spsystems.net (Henry Spencer) wrote:   
      
   > The shuttle does have considerable cross-range capability earlier in   
   > reentry, which is useful because you can reach a landing site that is   
   > significantly to one side of your orbit track.  This is helpful in normal   
   > operations, reducing the need for either in-orbit waits or retrieval from   
   > contingency landing sites.  Moreover, it's essential if you want to be   
   > able to do a once-around mission from Vandenberg, either deliberately or   
   > because a problem causes an Abort Once Around, since there's nothing much   
   > but water west of Vandenberg.   
   > --   
   > MOST launched 30 June; science observations running     |   Henry Spencer   
   > since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending.        | henry@spsystems.net   
      
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