Air Base in Morocco Readied for Shuttles
WASHINGTON — Construction has begun at an abandoned Strategic Air Command base near Ben Guerir, Morocco, to create an emergency landing site for space shuttles when they begin flying again, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Tuesday.
The base has a 14,000-foot runway, but its surface must be rejuvenated to make it usable by shuttles that might fail to reach the speeds necessary to get into orbit.
The Ben Guerir base, 40 miles north of Marrakech, will be the fourth emergency site. NASA announced earlier that another airport site in Gambia in northwest Africa will be upgraded to accommodate shuttles. The space agency plans to continue using runways at Zaragoza Air Base and Moron Air Base in Spain.
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