Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lanl.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!jlg From: jlg@lanl.ARPA Newsgroups: net.space Subject: Re: Computer Shuttle Landing Message-ID: <18025@lanl.ARPA> Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 13:21:40 EST Article-I.D.: lanl.18025 Posted: Fri Dec 14 13:21:40 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Dec-84 03:18:28 EST References: <-2700@tektools.UUCP> <73300001@hpfclq.UUCP> Sender: newsreader@lanl.ARPA Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lines: 27 >> > I believe the answer is "yes". I know that the on-board flight > computers land the vehicle but I don't remember if they also inject > the Shuttle into the re-entry path. I also think that it wasn't > until the sixth misssion that a pilot actually landed the craft > manually. Knowing NASA, it seems to me that they probably could land > the Shuttle without human help for safety reasons if nothing else. I remember it the other way around! I don't think the computer was allowed to control the whole landing sequence until the fifth or sixth flight. The reentry burn has traditionally been computer (or even ground) controlled* but the actual landing of the shuttle is similar enough to conventional aircraft that the final part of the landing sequence is usually handled by the pilot. Except for the Shuttle and some carrier based aircraft I don't think that there are ANY aircraft that are presently even capable of fully automated landing. As I remember, the Shuttle was landed manually for the first few flights in order to more fully test the flight computer. Each of the first few flights remained under computer control until successively later times in the reentry sequence, until the computer finally landed the craft on its own. Is there anyone out ther who actually KNOWS? * - Remember the problems caused when the automatic controls failed on the Mercury flights and the pilot had to control the attitude for the reentry burn manually.