Re: Shuttle landing path

From: George Roberts (gr@gr5.org)
Date: Thu Jul 21 2011 - 19:05:11 UTC

  • Next message: Dale Ireland: "RE: Shuttle landing path"

    > > Why did the shuttle almost always land on the ascending leg of its
    > > orbit rather than the descending which gives the whole
    
    I'm going to guess random chance.  Certainly for the non-ISS flights the 
    shuttle only reaches florida latitude so they are forced to wait until 
    florida is under that point in the shuttle's orbit.  But for the ISS flights 
    (which go much further north) they get two chances - an ascending and 
    descending pass (here ascend/descend refers to latitude, not altitude). 
    Florida would pass under these two orbital points twice each day about 9 
    hours apart e.g. noon and 9pm every day.  One of these times is likely 
    during daylight and one likely during night time and I expect they will go 
    with daylight every time regardless if it is descending or ascending.  If 
    they are both during daylight I think they pick the one at the more 
    convenient time of day (astronauts more alert).  But this is all a guess 
    based on what I know about orbits and how I might plan the shuttle landing 
    if it was my job.
    
    - George Roberts
    http://gr5.org
    
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