Shuttle Landing Facility welcomes first commercial service

FedEx Express (FX, Memphis Int'l) has become the first commercial carrier to serve the Shuttle Landing Facility (SLF) located at the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Merritt Island in Florida.

The logistics specialist says the arrival of one of its B757-200(F)s at the facility in December last year signified the start of a new collaboration between FedEx and the space industry.

“What we’re going through now is the privatization of space,” said Carl Asmus, FedEx Vice President of Supply Chain Solutions and Market Development. “Private companies are now taking over the exploration of space. This could drastically improve the speed of payload delivery."

FedEx is involved in the transportation of biomedical-related items from various laboratories to the launch site for onward delivery to the International Space Station (ISS). It is also involved in the redelivery of items recovered from the ISS for onward transmission back to their respective centres.

Space Florida took over the management and operations of the SLF under a thirty year lease from NASA (Washington Dulles) last year.

Built in 1974 for space shuttles returning to Kennedy, the SLF opened for flights in 1976. Among its unique features is a 4,572x92m main runway capable of supporting all types and sizes of aircraft and horizontal launch and landing vehicles.

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