Space Shuttle HUD tape (STS 125)

The best part of this video…“we’re not gonna make the center turnoff” - you can put the Southwest Airlines pilot into a spaceship, but you can’t take the Southwest Airlines pilot out of the man… :rofl:

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It cut off just as it was getting interesting! That looks like one helluva hairy landing to my unexperienced eye.

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I like the “niceeee” comment as soon as the wheels touch down.

@schurem it sure as hell is! I think they get one shot at landing that machine! I gotta say, I like the simplicity of the systems, the pilot only has to aim at the beacon on the ground(I suspect the HUD can detect and and projects that for the pilot to aim at) and then at a certain altitude follow the pull up cue!

This is a fun read too: Shuttle Training Aircraft - Wikipedia

Well, the shuttle doesn’t glide well.
One of the German astronauts who flew in the Shuttle (I don’t remember if it was Thomas Reiter or Ulf Merbold) likes to say “the glider with the worst glide rate I have ever flown in, but the fastest!”

That thing sits so nose-low, and they flare for so long, that’s quite an impact the nose makes when it finally drops!
The descent rate–10k ft to touchdown in 85 seconds. I believe it’s a 20 degree glide slope right until the very end.

I got to watch Columbia land its final time in early 2002. I was off the right edge of the screen when that video starts, over by the old Titan IV pad (which is now one of SpaceX’s I think). Watched it (and FELT it) drop subsonic right over head and do that 270 degree right turn as I spun around watching, dropping from over 30k to just over 10k in the process, and then finally it straightened out and that’s where that video picks up.

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That was intense to watch. Fantastic :clap: :clap:

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And that just cost him the jumpseat/commute home! Gonna have to stay the night at the crashpad.

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I read that if they set the nosegear down too soon, the nose down attitude will create such a downforce that the main wheels will be crushed.

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I heard that and all I could relate to is the X-Plane/MSFS2020 ATC comment to ‘please exit runway’ every 5 seconds after my main wheel touch :slight_smile:

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I think this has been posted here before but I really like this talk:

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Unless my eyes deceive me, are those energy/acceleration/deceleration carets next to the velocity vector just like in the M2000C?

In this case they are sort of flight directors.