• 40th anniversary of first US manned craft re-use.

    From Snidely@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 17 17:58:52 2021
    XPost: sci.space.shuttle, sci.space.policy

    Well, 5 days ago. STS-2. NasaSpaceFlight.com has a retrospective:

    <URL:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/11/sts-2-40th-anniversary/>

    Turn-around was about 5 months, it seems, but another month was added
    for tile repairs after RCS hypergolics were spilled. An abort spoiled
    the Nov 4 date, and the Nov 12 date was also in issue due to mux/demux
    failure.

    Launch was 7 months after the STS-1 launch. The flight lasted 2 days
    instead of the planned 5, due to a fuel cell failure. This was also
    the first flight where SRB joint o-ring erosion was found.


    (For JFM, there's a picture of /Columbia/ descending to Edwards. The
    angle is chosen to give the most appropriate airspeed; I'm not sure
    what the sink rate for level flight would be if you started trying it
    at the speed and elevation pictured.)

    /dps

    --
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    Well hung: curricle-hung in fact. Come sit by me and we'll test the
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  • From JF Mezei@21:1/5 to Snidely on Wed Nov 17 23:25:43 2021
    XPost: sci.space.shuttle, sci.space.policy

    On 2021-11-17 20:58, Snidely wrote:

    (For JFM, there's a picture of /Columbia/ descending to Edwards. The
    angle is chosen to give the most appropriate airspeed;


    Would it be fair to state that the descent rate wouldn't be that
    different, but by gaining speed, shen they do the final flare up, the
    wings get the descent rate top drop to near 0 for a smooth landing ?

    With low airspeed, they wouldn't be able to droop the descent rate by
    much when they flare up, right ?

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  • From Snidely@21:1/5 to All on Mon Nov 22 15:29:28 2021
    XPost: sci.space.shuttle, sci.space.policy

    JF Mezei is guilty of <bBklJ.68377$Wkjc.23879@fx35.iad> as of
    11/17/2021 8:25:43 PM
    On 2021-11-17 20:58, Snidely wrote:

    (For JFM, there's a picture of /Columbia/ descending to Edwards. The
    angle is chosen to give the most appropriate airspeed;


    Would it be fair to state that the descent rate wouldn't be that
    different, but by gaining speed, shen they do the final flare up, the
    wings get the descent rate top drop to near 0 for a smooth landing ?

    With low airspeed, they wouldn't be able to droop the descent rate by
    much when they flare up, right ?

    I'm only an armchair pilot. I would be willing to guess that the CDRs
    and PLTs have tried this in the simulator, just because, and the crews
    on the later flights had very much improved simulators.

    I am willing to guess that trying for level flight is not useful in a
    Shuttle.

    /dps

    --
    There's nothing inherently wrong with Big Data. What matters, as it
    does for Arnold Lund in California or Richard Rothman in Baltimore, are
    the questions -- old and new, good and bad -- this newest tool lets us
    ask. (R. Lerhman, CSMonitor.com)

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  • From Stuf4@21:1/5 to snidely on Mon Dec 27 20:35:01 2021
    "40th anniversary of first US manned craft re-use."

    This post has been uncorrected here in more than a month.
    No, STS-2 was *NOT* the first reuse of an astronaut-piloted spacecraft.
    Not by a longshot.

    I hope there are still people who care about accurate facts.
    We are very close to one year away from the *60TH* anniversary.

    <URL:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/11/sts-2-40th-anniversary/>

    Even that article makes this same mistake:
    "Columbia would have to be turned around for a second mission. No longer would a U.S. crewed spacecraft be used only once."

    No. You missed the boat, Chris Gebhardt of NASAspaceflight.com. Missed it by a couple of decades.

    ~ CT




    On Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 6:58:57 PM UTC-7, snidely wrote:
    Well, 5 days ago. STS-2. NasaSpaceFlight.com has a retrospective:

    <URL:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2021/11/sts-2-40th-anniversary/>

    Turn-around was about 5 months, it seems, but another month was added
    for tile repairs after RCS hypergolics were spilled. An abort spoiled
    the Nov 4 date, and the Nov 12 date was also in issue due to mux/demux failure.

    Launch was 7 months after the STS-1 launch. The flight lasted 2 days
    instead of the planned 5, due to a fuel cell failure. This was also
    the first flight where SRB joint o-ring erosion was found.


    (For JFM, there's a picture of /Columbia/ descending to Edwards. The
    angle is chosen to give the most appropriate airspeed; I'm not sure
    what the sink rate for level flight would be if you started trying it
    at the speed and elevation pictured.)

    /dps

    --
    "What do you think of my cart, Miss Morland? A neat one, is not it?
    Well hung: curricle-hung in fact. Come sit by me and we'll test the
    springs."
    (Speculative fiction by H.Lacedaemonian.)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)