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A NASA CV-990, modified as a Landing Systems Research Aircraft (LSRA), in flight over NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, for a test of the space shuttle landing gear system. The space shuttle landing gear test unit, operated by a high-pressure hydraulic system, allowed engineers to assess and document the performance of space shuttle main and nose landing gear systems, tires and wheel assemblies, plus braking and nose wheel steering performance.
The series of 155 test missions for the space shuttle program provided extensive data about the life and endurance of the shuttle tire systems and helped raise the shuttle crosswind landing limits at Kennedy.