Edwards Air Force Base

*Not to be confused with Ellington Air Force Base.*

Aerial view of Edwards AFB

## Maps

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* Edwards AFB on US map

The **Edwards Air Force Base** is a US Air ForceW installation in California near LancasterW, at the edge of the Rogers Dry LakeW.

## General information

Edwards hosts the Air Force Test CenterW and the Air Force Test Pilot SchoolW, and many more Air Force facilities. It has over a dozen runways, most of them on the lakebed of the dry lake next to the base. The USAF Plant 42 near Palmdale is about 37 km southwest and is operated as a component of the Edwards Air Force Base.

Edwards AFB is also a landing site for NASA's Space Shuttles, and the home of NASA's Flight Research Center (FRC).

## NASA Flight Research Center

The NASA Flight Research Center (FRC) is an aeronautical research center operated by NASA and located inside Edwards Air Force Base. NASA is also using the base as one of their two main Space Shuttle landing sites, beside the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The airbase's immense lakebeds and its proximity to Plant 42, where the shuttles are serviced before relaunch, were important factors in its selection. Shuttles that land in Edwards are transported back to KSC mounted on NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

In the early years of the Apollo program, the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV), a test vehicle to simulate Moon landings with the Apollo LEM, were used by the FRC to study and analyze piloting techniques needed to fly and land the Lunar Module in the Moon's airless environment. After acceptance by NASA, they were transferred to the Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, where they were later replaced by an improved version, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV). The test vehicles were also called "the flying bedstead".

## History

On May 21, 1983, Margo Madison asked Nelson Bradford to allow the Space Shuttle *Kon-Tiki* to land in Edwards and maybe free up some polar launches from Vandenberg, since NASA had shuttles double-parked at Edwards at that time and the Air Force would have free capacity.

In 1995, the shuttle *Endeavour* was avaiting transport to KSC in Edwards after returning from Jamestown mission 228.

## Behind the scenes

1. ↑ In the real world, since 2014, the center's name is Armstrong Flight Research Center, honoring Neil ArmstrongW, who was a former test pilot at the center. Former names of the center were Muroc Flight Test Unit (1946), NACA High-Speed Flight Research Station (1949), NACA High-Speed Flight Station (1954), NASA High-Speed Flight Station (1958), NASA Flight Research Center (1959), and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (1974).
In the TV show, it is only ever referred to as "Edwards", so the actual name of the facility in the *For All Mankind* timeline is unknown.

### Gallery

*Real life images:*

Edwards AFB & its runwaysThe NASA Dryden Flight Research Center inside Edwards AFB in 2008Satellite image of the Dryden FRC, 2005Space Shuttle *Columbia* landing on the Rogers dry lakeLunar Landing Research Vehicle over Edwards AFB, 1965LLRV in Edwards AFB, 1964

## See also

* Other USAF facilities:
	+ Cape Kennedy
	+ Ellington Air Force Base
	+ US Air Force Plant 42
	+ Vandenberg Air Force Base
* Other NASA facilites:
	+ Johnson Space Center (JSC, later CSC)
	+ Kennedy Space Center (KSC)
	+ Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC)
	+ Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
	+ Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
	+ McMurdo Station (NASA annex)
	+ Carl Sagan Center for Planetary Science

## External links

* Edwards Air Force Base on Wikipedia
* Edwards Air Force Base - official website
* Armstrong Flight Research Center on Wikipedia
* Armstrong Flight Research Center - official website

## References

1. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 2, Episode 1: "Every Little Thing"
2. ↑ *For All Mankind* TV Series - Season 3, Episode 7: "Bring It Down" (Mission status board @ 43:03) → Screenshot