Although on call during an entire mission in case of an earlier-than-scheduled landing, the Orbiter Convoy normally begins recovery operations in earnest about two hours before the orbiter is scheduled to land.

The convoy consists of about 25 specially designed vehicles or units and a team of about 150 trained personnel who assist the crew in leaving the orbiter, "safe" the orbiter, prepare it for towing, and tow the vehicle to the Orbiter Processing Facility. The team that recovers the orbiter is primarily composed of KSC personnel, whether the landing takes place at KSC, at Edwards AFB in California, or elsewhere.

The first staging position of the convoy after landing is 1,250 feet (381 meters) from the orbiter. Safety assessment teams dressed in protective attire and with breathing apparatus use detectors to obtain vapor level readings around the orbiter and to test for possible explosive or toxic gases such as hydrogen, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide or ammonia.

Once the forward and aft safety assessment teams successfully complete their vapor readings around the orbiter, Purge and Coolant Umbilical Access Vehicles are moved into position behind the orbiter to get access to the umbilical areas. The ground halves of the onboard hydrogen detection sample lines are connected to determine the hydrogen concentration. If no hydrogen is present, convoy operations continue. If hydrogen is detected, the crew is evacuated immediately, convoy personnel are cleared from the area and an emergency power-down of the orbiter is conducted; thankfully, this condition has never happened yet post-landing.

After the carrier plates for the hydrogen and oxygen umbilicals are installed, the flow of coolant and purge air through the umbilical lines begins. Purge air provides cool and humidified air conditioning to the payload bay and other cavities to remove any residual explosive or toxic fumes. The purge of the vehicle normally occurs within approximately 45-60 minutes after the orbiter comes to a full stop. Cooling transfer to ground services occurs at about the same time, allowing onboard cooling to be shut down.

When it is determined that the area in and around the orbiter is safe, the crew prepares for departure from the orbiter. The Crew Hatch Access Vehicle can move to the hatch side of the orbiter and a "white room" mated to the orbiter hatch. The hatch is opened and a physician performs a brief preliminary medical examination of the crew members before they egress the vehicle. Crew egress generally occurs within an hour after landing. Nominally Astronauts can egress from the orbiter more quickly and more comfortably by transferring from the white room directly into a Crew Transport Vehicle (CTV), a modified "people mover" used at airports. Crew members cannot be seen as they pass through a curtained ramp to the CTV.

Usually, the commander, and sometimes other crew members, will perform a post-flight walk around the orbiter. Finally, the crew departs in the CTV.

It is only after the crew has left the orbiter and the orbiter ground cooling is established that Johnson Space Center "hands over" responsibility of the vehicle to Kennedy Space Center.

The flight crew is replaced aboard the orbiter by exchange support personnel who prepare the orbiter for ground tow operations, install switch guards and remove data packages from any onboard experiments. After total safety downgrade, vehicle ground personnel make numerous preparations for the towing operation, including the installation of landing gear lock pins, disconnection of the nose landing gear drag link, positioning of the towing vehicle in front of the orbiter and connection of the tow bar. Towing normally begins within four hours after landing, and is completed within six hours, unless time-sensitive experiment removals are required on the runway.

In addition to convoy operations on the runway, a KSC engineering test team monitors data from the orbiter from a station in one of the Launch Control Center’s firing rooms. After the orbiter "hand-over" to KSC, this team is enabled to issue commands to the orbiter to configure specific orbiter systems for the tow to one of three bays of the Orbiter Processing Facility. In the OPF the process flow begins to ready the vehicle for its next flight. If the orbiter lands at Edwards, the vehicle will be towed to the Mate/Demate Device for turnaround processing and mate to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, which will bring the orbiter back to KSC for the next process flow.