Off the I-15

When the space shuttle decides to touch down at Edwards Air Force Base, Fort Irwin is there. Chief Warrant Officer Eric Metcalf, a Fort Irwin helicopter pilot at the Barstow-Daggett Airport, said Fort Irwin’s Blackhawk helicopters provide medical support for the space shuttle if it lands at Edwards.

The space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth on Friday afternoon by way of a landing strip in the desert. Inclement weather prevented the shuttle from landing in Florida on Thursday.

John Wagstaffe, a spokesman for Fort Irwin, did not yet know if the helicopters were on hand to provide medical evacuation, but he said they have responded in the past. Also in question is what helicopters Fort Irwin flew to the site. Traditionally, the Blackhawks respond, but Fort Irwin recently received the military’s newest helicopter, the Lakota. The Lakota was designed to better serve in medical evacuation missions such as a potential shuttle disaster.

The last time a shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force Base was in 2005, the first flight after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Atlantis’ landing was the 51st time a shuttle has touched down in the Mojave Desert. It will be transported back to Florida on top of a modified Boeing 747.

In April, Fort Irwin soldiers practiced a shuttle landing at Edwards.