The day the Space Shuttle Columbia landed in New Mexico
WHITE SANDS, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico has long played a leading role in the United States’ exploration of space, and in 1982, the state was put in the history books as the Space Shuttle Columbia landed at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico.
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It was just the third official mission of the decade-old Space Shuttle program. Astronauts Jack Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton blasted off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 22, 1982. “When the main engines ignited, there was a certain amount of shaking and rattling and that was obvious,” said Fullerton in an after-mission report recorded by NASA.
The two conducted several experiments while in Earth’s orbit putting the shuttle through testing while also working on experiments inside it.
Originally, the plan was for the Columbia to land at Dryden (now Armstrong) Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California but several inches of standing water from rain forced NASA administrators to cancel those plans. Instead, the Columbia would land at White Sands Missile Range.
While White Sands was a backup option, crews still had to scramble to get ready for Columbia’s arrival. “It’s another mission to us but it’s a much much bigger mission than anything we’ve ever had here, I think the people are pretty proud to be part of it,” said one member at White Sands in a KRQE News 13 report.
In New Mexico, thousands gathered to see the landing, the only one that would happen in the shuttle program outside of California or Florida.
On March 30, the Columbia re-entered Earth’s atmosphere flying over Baja California, Mexico, and Arizona before landing at White Sands Missile Range. It was a smooth landing but not without a little drama as the nose of the plane tipped upwards. “I noticed that the wheel, nose wheel was going down more quickly than I wanted to and had to hold it off some, and in doing so, I over-rotated a little bit and kind of popped a wheelie there but no harm done,” said Lousma in an after-mission report recorded by NASA.
After more than a week in space and 130 orbits, Lousma and Gordon Fullerton made it safely back to Earth stirring up the white sands of New Mexico behind them.
