Military Base
Edwards Air Force Base lies east of Rosamond, 37 miles (60 km) northeast of Palmdale. Edwards AFB's dry lakebeds are the lowest geographic elevation in the valley. Significant amounts of U.S. military flight testing is performed there, and it has been the site of many important aeronautical accomplishments, including the first flight to break the sound barrier. NASA space shuttles originally landed at Edwards because the lake beds offer a vast landing area. NASA built a huge landing strip at Kennedy Space Center, and Edwards was retained as the backup in case of bad weather at Cape Canaveral.
NASA Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center is a tenant organization at Edwards AFB. The Center is best known for the X-15 experimental rocket ship program. It has been the home of NASA's high-performance aircraft research since it was founded for the X-1 program. The Orbiter was serviced there when it landed at Edwards.
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Famous quotes containing the words military and/or base:
“His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it. The antique arm whined as he reached for another mug. It was a Russian military prosthesis, a seven-function force-feedback manipulator, cased in grubby pink plastic.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“I have always heard, Sancho, that doing good to base fellows is like throwing water into the sea.”
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