HUD view of Shuttle landing

[canyonblue737]

Dumb question:

Do they hand fly it, or is it like a cat III ils?

Hand flown starting from 100-75,000 ft on down is the average average. They never use the autopilot capablity lower anymore since the 1st - 3rd shuttle flights which tested it but it only did a so, so job and the pilots proved better. The autopilot does fly the entry profile to 100k at least in general.

 

[frog_flyer]

haven't yall seen that journey to the center of the earth knockoff movie?

the chick from million dollar baby? she landed the shuttle under a LAX freeway... thats skill

 

[Bob Sacamano]

I thought carrier quals were tough!

Copied from:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/preparingtravel/rtf_week5_sta.html

Prior to a Shuttle mission, a commander has to complete 1,000 STA landings.

 

[SLFLYHI]

Hand flown starting from 100-75,000 ft on down is the average average. They never use the autopilot capablity lower anymore since the 1st - 3rd shuttle flights which tested it but it only did a so, so job and the pilots proved better. The autopilot does fly the entry profile to 100k at least in general.

Did Hoot tell you this?....

 

[dseagrav]

Of course, Aerojet is smarter than pretty much any other autopilot, and runs on 4 computers at once...

 

[captainv]

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/...ission_profile

according to this site, it's on autoland below 10,000.

The approach and landing trajectory capture phase begins at the TAEM interface and continues to guidance lock-on to the steep outer glide slope. The approach and landing phase begins at about 10,000 feet altitude at an equivalent airspeed of 290, plus or minus 12, knots 6.9 nautical miles (7.9 statute miles) from touchdown. Autoland guidance is initiated at this point to guide the orbiter to the minus 19- to 17-degree glide slope (which is over seven times that of a commercial airliner's approach) aimed at a target 0.86 nautical mile (1 statute mile) in front of the runway. The spacecraft's speed brake is positioned to hold the proper velocity. The descent rate in the later portion of TAEM and approach and landing is greater than 10,000 feet per minute (a rate of descent approximately 20 times higher than a commercial airliner's standard 3-degree instrument approach angle).

 

[Be 23]

Hand flown starting from 100-75,000 ft on down is the average average. They never use the autopilot capablity lower anymore since the 1st - 3rd shuttle flights which tested it but it only did a so, so job and the pilots proved better. The autopilot does fly the entry profile to 100k at least in general.

Believe it or not, the current flight rules have the commander take over at < mach 1 (not by altitude). The pilot gets a few seconds of stick time after that if everthing is OK. The autoland feature is not certified for nominal, non-emergency use.

The profile puts the shuttle on a 7 mile final at 10,000 ft. Touchdown at about 200kts, about 2000' down the runway.

 

[Trogdor]

Some of these approach numbers are crazy:
(taken from http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/mission_profile.html#mission_profile)

...at approximately 83,000 feet altitude, 2,500 feet per second, Mach 2.5 and 52 nautical miles from the landing runway...

...49,000 feet altitude, about 22 nautical miles from the landing site.

The approach and landing phase begins at about 10,000 feet altitude at an equivalent airspeed of 290, plus or minus 12, knots 6.9 nautical miles from touchdown.

 

[Sampson]

from what I saw the approach was hand flown. He was using the FPV or the bird as its called in Airbus aircraft, it seemed to be very squirrly as he was making his turn to final and then broke out of the clouds.

Very cool stuff, I actually used my FPV today just to emulate the landing, HA.

 

[chignutsak]

I am sure it must be practiced in the sim over and over, no chance for a go around!

You think?

 

[dseagrav]

Very cool stuff, I actually used my FPV today just to emulate the landing, HA.

That's nothing, my flight instructor says I fly patterns like the space shuttle every time.

 

[JimNtexas]

The pilots do the actual landing. Unlike the old Russian Buran, the Shuttle has never done a full autoland.

For the first time ever, this mission carried a 'jumper cable'. This cable ran from the pilots instrument panel to a panel in the back of the craft. What this jumper cable did was allow someone on the ground to lower the gear. By having this jumper they could have brought the shuttle back from the ISS uncrewed if there was damage that made it too risky for human flight, but still worth attempting to save the craft.

It would have landed at Vandenberg in this contingency.

 

[siucavflight]

I am sure it must be practiced in the sim over and over, no chance for a go around!

You really think so? I dont know about that, I bet in the orbiter is the first place that they try it.

 

[Lilah]

To the best of my recollection, there was one mission commmander that hand flew the orbiter all the way down from the de-orbit burn. I'll see if I can find any documentation to back that up.....

Lilah

 

[CherryBomb]

What? There are no shuttle drivers on here?

I wonder if theyed be complaining about their union, calling the Russian cosmonauts scabs for selling rides. Wanting better pay and QOL...
:laugh:

 

[iflyabeech]

"......So far, shuttle commanders have taken control of the orbiter for all final approach and landing maneuvers during subsonic flight, usually about 22 miles (35 kilometers) from the touchdown point......."

~~~~taken from http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/pdf/LandingSS-2005.pdf

also more info here:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/landing101.html

 

[VNugget]

To the best of my recollection, there was one mission commmander that hand flew the orbiter all the way down from the de-orbit burn. I'll see if I can find any documentation to back that up.....

Lilah

It was the first shuttle flight.

 

[MKaprocki]

It was the first shuttle flight.

Most of STS-1 was flown in automatic. They went into CSS briefly on a couple occasions, but didn't fly the whole thing manually.

From what I have read, missions 1-4 had the highest use of CSS, but none were flown completely by hand.

 

[Lilah]

MKaprocki,

I disagree, from the little looking that I've done, indications are John Young hand-flew the orbiter after it exceeded yaw limitations in one of the first S-turns after entry interface. The method of control is not clear to me from the source you cited, even though the yaw limits were mentioned.

Thanks for the link, it was an interesting read. I'll look for an additional references from friends within the program. You are right though, he did NOT fly the ENTIRE reentry.

Lilah

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