WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Personnel and equipment converge on the orbiter Discovery to begin servicing the spacecraft following its landing April 29, 1990, at NASA's then Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, California. Post-landing servicing by the recovery convoy is carried out after each Space Shuttle landing and includes safety checks for flammable and toxic gases escaping from systems aboard the orbiters, hooking up engine fuel purge and equipment coolant lines, and inspecting the brakes before the vehicle is towed from the runway to the shuttle facility at Dryden where it is prepared for the ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Up to 24 vehicles and scores of personnel make up the landing recovery convoys at Dryden.