Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ginosko!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!mailrus!sharkey!cfctech!fmeed1!ccd700!mibte!gamma!towernet!pyuxp!pyuxe!nvuxr!deej
From: deej@nvuxr.UUCP (David Lewis)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Tanks for the memories (was Re: Shuttle ... -a question-)
Message-ID: <1313@nvuxr.UUCP>
Date: 20 Sep 89 16:48:35 GMT
References: <31816@ames.arc.nasa.gov> <21679@sequent.UUCP>
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Lines: 25

In article <21679@sequent.UUCP>, cliffw@sequent.UUCP (Cliff White) writes:
> In article <31816@ames.arc.nasa.gov> yee@trident.arc.nasa.gov (Peter E. Yee) writes:
> >                                                                  Later
> >          today the crew members will practice driving in the M113 tracked
> >          vehicles at the Shuttle Landing Facility. Commander Don Williams
> Please pardon a (possibly) stupid question-but why is the crew practicing
> tank driving? How does this relate to space work?

(Nitpicking -- the M113 is an Armored Personnel Carrier, not a tank...)

Anyway.  The M113 is part of the emergency crew escape system at KSC. 
In the event of a pad emergency where the crew needs to get out of the
shuttle (while still on the ground, that is) and away from the pad in a
hurry, they ride a basket down a cable to the ground, bail out of that,
pile into the M113, and drive like hell away from the pad.

I guess if you're going to be in the vicinity of a large amount of
exploding rocket fuel, an armored personnel carrier is a decent kind of
thing to be in... although personally I might go for exit speed and have
three or four Ferarri Testarossas there myself...

-- 
David G Lewis				...!bellcore!nvuxr!deej

			"If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawnmower."