Vic7 wrote:

Blanche Wrote:
The landing area is not chosen "a few minutes in advance". There's
at least one orbit, usually 2 (90/180 min) for the final decision.

That is quite true for a de-orbit landing, but what about a sub-orbital
launch abort? Is an emergency landing site always available after a
certain minimum altitude is reached?

I am certain the engineers have calculated the answer to this question
and the pilot and mission commander have that emergency procedure
memorized, but I have no idea if there are any critical gaps short of
orbit.

Launch aborts are completely different, and depends entirely at what
point in the launch process the decision is made to abort. There are
alternate landing sites outside the USA.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/...ty/sts-els.htm

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...tal_sites.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sh...ain/index.html