[MilCom] STS-114 Astronaut Crew has arrived at KSC

[AllanStern at aol.com]

The Space Shuttle STS-114 Mission (Return to Flight Mission) crew started 
arriving in T-38s at about 6:30pm Sunday evening.  The T-38s arrived in pairs 
using callsigns NASA 917, NASA 956 and NASA 918, in that order. Then STS-114 
Mission Commander Eileen Collins piloted her T-38 (callsign NASA 114, reflecting 
the STS-114 Mission number) and landed at 8:20pm. 

One of the STS-114 crew members, flying in the back seat of NASA 956, was 
engaged by the Daytona Air Traffic Controller in a short chat.  The ATC exclaimed 
how glad the ATCs will be to have the astronauts coming here more often as 
the Shuttle program resumes flights.  The crew member said "You will be seeing 
lots of us in the next few weeks."

The crew will fly their Shuttle Training Aircraft (STAs) tonight (Monday), 
beginning at about 6pm, and will perform the steep dives on approaches to the 
Shuttle Landing Facility Runway.  The STAs are Gulfstream II airplanes that have 
been specially modified so as to simulate performance of the orbiter during 
final stages of the Shuttle landing. Tune to 126.65 to hear the astronaut comms 
during this activity. The comms can be hear for a great distance in Florida

AL STERN Satellite Beach FL (28-11N 80-36W) monitoring
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