Burning Question-- Does everybody land the shuttle?

des · Post by **des** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:15 pm

Ok I was commander back when and we did the landing. I think it might have been the program Precision Assist which is an old program that was written by Binary Star (they do programs for musuems and so on).
Anyway, I landed it. I got instructions re: put your nose up, etc.
There was the inevitable humor that I had just run over an alligator.

So I didn't think it would have been particularly difficult. Anyway when I went to AC one of the counselors told me that I did well, not everybody lands. I didn't know any group that didn't land.

So what's the answer on this one.

--des

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 9:19 pm

Actually till recently not all the simulators actually really had you in control of the landing most were just a video and you went through the mothions. I don't know how Discovery worked in those days because when i was at academy i was commander of Endeavour which by 93 was just video.

Carrie · Post by **Carrie** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:25 pm

Welcome Des!

I was commander as well when I went to Adult Academy. I hadn't requested it, and when they assigned me, I was a little nervous! I don't remember the name of the simulator we had, just that it was the one closest to the UAT at the time, but I don't think it gave me any directions on what to do during landing. Too bad...maybe then I wouldn't have landed it practically on its nose! I remember not getting the cargo bay doors closed right either, so we all would have been toast in real life. Yikes. My other assignment was PROP in Mission Control...I didn't keep up well with that, so it wasn't my most shining moment either. Maybe I should look at it as practice, so that if I go back for Advanced I'll do better!

Hotdog · Post by **Hotdog** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:28 pm

in 1992 I was Commander of our Discovery mission. My Pilot and I managed to land the orbiter with the wheels up (she didn't know I had already put the gear down when she went to throw the switch, sending the landing gear back up inside the Shuttle). I think i remember telling mission control "wow that landing was a bit bumpier than normal!" only to get the response, "Discovery, you just skidded down the runway with no landing gear!!"

Hotdog · Post by **Hotdog** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 3:32 pm

Carrie wrote:Welcome Des!

I don't remember the name of the simulator we had, just that it was the one closest to the UAT at the time

In my day, that simulator was Columbia. My first mission back in '89 was aboard that ship. I think they renamed it to Intrepid or something after the crash in '03, so you may have flown it under that name.

des · Post by **des** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:21 pm

Perhaps you kind of "go thru the motions" what with the hydraulic base and all. You go thru the check list. I didn't feel that I was really landing it. I tried software at the Houston museum and it was MUCH harder. (I probably would have been able to do it if I had more practice.)

I'll have to see what Precision Assist software looks like. That's what the kids will use this summer in my little space adventures camp. From what I understand, it helps you thru the landing, but it doesn't do everything. It may be what they used long ago. This is a really old DOS program. However, I just recall the video aspects. I don't recall any computer aspects to this. The program we will be using combines a computer with a video and the mechanical switches.

I'm trying to find an old PC for looking this over. Somethign extremely cheap. So anyone with a very old doorstop looking for it to serve a good perhaps, send me a private message.

We're also using something called MacMECO, which I gather from the name has something to do wtih launch. This runs on very old macs.

All these old computers means this thing is very genuine.

The AC counselors were friendly fun guys so perhaps he was just being nice about how they don't always land it. I'm guessing the instructions I got were to make it more realistic.

--des

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:25 pm

Actually the one closest to the UAT which was the other one used by Academy programs was and still is Atlantis. Columbia was more in the middle of the floor and it was actually removed in 2002 by that point Intrepid was already there and in use Columbia had pretty much been set aside by then. The Intrepid and Columbia were completely diffrent simulators. A couple of years ago Intrepid was renamed Endeavour replacing the second of the two hydraulic cockpits which had been Endeavour. The timing of Columbia's removal was actually a few months before the accident. Intrepid now Endeavour is larger and more complete than Columbia ever was. [/quote]

Hotdog · Post by **Hotdog** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:29 am

the Orbiter space flight sim is pretty realistic (and hard too - ya almost gotta be a NASA astronaut to fly it), and you can add on other vehicles to the sim like the space station, Mercury/Atlas, and Apollo Saturn 5!

http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/orbit.html

SpaceCanada · Post by **SpaceCanada** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 11:42 am

As we also learnt during our free time, you can miss the runway (or veer off it) and run into the VAB! Much fun...

DanM · Post by **DanM** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:37 pm

I think the joystick is a decoration in discovery. I couldn't fly It. BUt there were payload bay door issues...

1MileCrash · Post by **1MileCrash** » Fri Mar 16, 2007 9:22 pm

i remember on the "journey to tomorrow" shuttle at florida the flight stick was just for show. i swear to god it was welded in place...it was completely immobile.

i even remember that in the flight manual it said something like "at t -20 seconds to touchdown pull back on stick to flair the nose up." my commander looked over at me as i'm going down my checklist and she whispers "the stick doesn't move...what do i do..." "i dunno...pretend i guess" it was all a loop video anyway so there was no way you could crash it.

i also remember the orbiter endeavour, the hydraulic mockup at huntsville...the video loop did somethin screwy. we were supposed to dock with the space station. when it was supposed to happen it looked as though we bounced off of the station and started floating away. i looked at my pilot and go..."what just happened there..." that one was also just a video feed. again...no way to kill you or your crew.

andystroik · Post by **andystroik** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 4:44 pm

Hi guys,

I have been to Space Camp ASA SCIVIS 2004-2006. My ASA team name was von Braun all three years.

We flew the Enterprise shuttle and MOCR room.
I have never been a CDR but was a PLT once.
And my crews always landed the shuttle although I’m not positive they use motion portion of the sims anymore.

des · Post by **des** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:37 pm

I thought the hydraulic thing was kind of cool, so too bad.
I wonder if x staff member was, ah er, flirting with me??

(No better way to flirt with a geeky type than to say something like that.)
The question would be, of course, that I was way way older, but maybe he liked older women.

--des

andystroik wrote:Hi guys,

I have been to Space Camp ASA SCIVIS 2004-2006. My ASA team name was von Braun all three years.

We flew the Enterprise shuttle and MOCR room.
I have never been a CDR but was a PLT once.
And my crews always landed the shuttle although I’m not positive they use motion portion of the sims anymore.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:45 pm

Well i know when i was there in 93 the hydraulics were used on Endeavour the old one not the current one but only prior to lift off when they would tilt it back The flight stick didnt make it move at all. I remember they said they normaly did the same with Discovery but it wasnt working that week for some reason so they didnt get to tilt back into launch position but we in endeavour did.

monkeynautt · Post by **monkeynautt** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 12:08 am

We used Discovery - renamed Soyuz C - for the first 8 day mission and it worked then but that was in 2004. If you used Enterprise it is not meant to tilt b/c of the payload bay.

Boomerang · Post by **Boomerang** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:10 am

It would be incredible for Eterprise to beable to do that but the cost would be incredible to install a hydraulic system for something that large abnd i'm just referring to something the size of the forward section alone

Mercergl · Post by **Mercergl** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 5:17 pm

i'm not sure if we survived or not, but at the end of my '06 SA mission we landed on two wheels and a wing

des · Post by **des** » Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:25 pm

This guy, Jim, who makes shuttle mock ups says that really only one mock up at Houston moves either. So the really typical sim experience actually is stable, with lots of anomolies thrown in when they are ready.

--des

Mercergl · Post by **Mercergl** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 4:01 pm

Wouldn't a moving shuttle actually make it less realistic? Since you're in microgravity on the shuttle anyway, you wouldn't be able to feel much movement. The only time would be during acceleration or manuvering, plus the landing.

pilotgirl21 · Post by **pilotgirl21** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:01 am

If I landed the shuttle on Friday night, then everybody lands the shuttle, LOL. I did land in the forest with the payload bay doors open, but we survived.