KSC thrilled to be part of Fossett's flight

A little perspective on Steve Fossett's record-setting flight from Kennedy Space Center, where teams from airfield services worked to prepare the shuttle runway for GlobalFlyer's takeoff.

Ron Feile, a Titusville resident who is a lead controller at the Shuttle Landing Facility for Space Gateway Support, says the airfield services folks kept track of Fossett's progress throughout the mission. As of Friday, they were preparing to make sure they were ready in case the pilot decided it was unsafe to cross the Atlantic a second time. That didn't happen, "but we wanted to be poised for Mr. Fossett's arrival and to handle that aircraft if, for some reason, he had to return."

Likewise, they were prepared when Fossett took off to handle an aborted flight or a sudden return to the runway, Feile says.

The KSC folks were very impressed with the GlobalFlyer, Virgin Atlantic and Scaled Composites teams that were involved in the mission.

"We were just thrilled to host a mission with this kind of scope and detail," Feile says. The precision and attention to detail of the teams was impressive and similar in many ways to the handling of space shuttles and astronaut training aircraft that regularly use the strip.

Feile says the mission was a chance for KSC to show off its versatility to supporting all kinds of flights, from the space shuttle to GlobalFlyer to private spacecraft carrying tourists, if that ever comes to pass.