How Do Space Shuttles Land
Shuttle flight path for landing.
How do space shuttles land. Watch as bresnik discusses the differences between landing in a space shuttle versus a soyuz capsule. The space shuttle atlantis will land at kennedy space center ksc in florida tomorrow july 21. Space shuttle atlantis completed the program on july 21 2011 wrapping up the sts 135 mission with a predawn touchdown on the same runway where columbia first arrived more than 30 years earlier.
The commander brakes the orbiter and the speed brake on the vertical tail opens up. For the flight crew and mission control team this is no easy task. You start with the desired endpoint then back out all the operations.
The pilot deploys the landing gear and the orbiter touches down. Shuttle endeavour is silhouetted against the dawn sky as it rolls to launch pad 39a for sts 130 launch preparations. Reentry for a soyuz capsule on the other hand is often described as a series of car crashes.
It requires the careful. Spacecraft landing points are selected and orchestrated using what the us military calls sensibly enough backwards planning. Reentry for a space shuttle is fairly smooth and the wings allow for a landing similar to that of a glider.
When the orbiter is 2 000 ft 610 m above the ground the commander pulls up the nose to slow the rate of descent. It is really amazing that the space shuttle is basically an unpowered plane a very bad plane as you ll see in the video why that is flying in space at 17 500 miles per hour 28 000 km h. To use up excess energy the orbiter performs a series of four steep banks rolling over as much as 80 degrees to one side or the other to slow down.
Landing it on an about 3 mile 4 572 meters long runway on the kennedy space center in merritt island florida using only air resistance to brake is mind blogging.