Where does the space shuttle land?

The shuttle orbiter had no engines for atmospheric flight: after reentry it descended without propulsion and had only one chance to land. That's why NASA required long runways, clear skies, and moderate crosswinds. The approach was much steeper than a passenger jet's, with a glide slope of about 20 degrees that flattened out in the final seconds before touching down on the main gear at around 350 km/h (190 kn).

The Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, now the Launch and Landing Facility, was built in the mid-1970s at 4,572 m (15,000 ft) long and 91 m (300 ft) wide, among the largest in the world. Landing there was the preferred option because the orbiter ended up just a few kilometers from its hangars, avoiding the need to ferry it back atop a modified Boeing 747. The first landing at Kennedy was Challenger's in February 1984; from then on it became the usual destination, though Florida's storms forced many missions to divert elsewhere.

Edwards Air Force Base, in the Mojave Desert, offered nearly always-clear skies and dry lakebeds stretching for kilometers, where a miscalculation wasn't fatal. The earliest missions landed there, including Columbia's in April 1981, along with every flight Florida's weather turned away. White Sands, in New Mexico, received Columbia in March 1982 because Edwards was flooded, and was never used again. NASA also kept emergency runways in Zaragoza and Morón (Spain), Istres (France), and other bases for a transoceanic abort, which was never needed.