It’s amazing to know that the US test pilots back in the 1960s perfected the “Spot Landing” procedures using the F-104 during the X-15 flight test era (199 test flights). After the speed and altitude runs by the X-15, it was essentially a glider to the landing. Amazing science, ingenuity, and talent.
I am not an astronaut but I was fortunate enough to fly the full motion shuttle simulator at JSC before it was dismantled. I am a commercial pilot and I found the Shuttle HUD quite intuitive. The control stick, however, had an unusual movement and was very sensitive. It required small, short inputs and I can see the actuations in this video. It was relatively easy to land the Shuttle (simulator) safely as long as you followed the HUD cues. Getting a GOOD landing was more challenging due to the approach speed and control sensitivity. I floated one landing and lightly bounced another. But we would have walked away from both attempts 😂
I worked with a woman that had worked on the software for the shuttle flight simulator. She said after the first shuttle mission returned, the pilots told them that they had really nailed it with the simulator. No surprises at all.
@@ThePorgie at that speed you'd expect an impact, not a landing. Though it's really impressive just how fast it bleeds off speed. From beginning the flare to touchdown over 100 kts deceleration in just 20 seconds. If they took the nose up any earlier it WOULD likely fall like a brick.
There was a point just as they broke thru the clouds at around 6000 ft , you realize this landing more like a controlled crash of a carrier landing , the nose down angle before the flare was unnervingly steep . The skill and composure of the crew was top notch otherworldly .
Cool part of this video is it starts with the Pilot (who is actually the "copilot") flying the Shuttle for some stick time granted by the Commander before transferring controls back to the Commander to complete the approach and landing. Very cool.
No. There is no "granting" of stick time in the shuttle, there is not any unplanned graciousness. They operate by procedure and checklist. Whoever has the controls at any particular time was meant to have the controls at the time for some particular reason.
I had the good fortune of visiting KSC several times for work. I used to watch the pilots practice their dead stick landings in the Gulfstream II they used as a trainer. The approach angle is VERY steep. I had the good fortune of walking on the MLP while it was on Pad A. I walked under the shuttle tail so close I could almost touch it. I also got to watch a launch from the VAB. If you've ever heard a fighter on burners you know how loud that is. Multiply that by 2-3 and you will get the feeling of the sound level. I remember about 20 seconds after the roll, it takes that long for the sound to cross the swamp and reach the VAB, the noise level was deafening, and that is from 4 miles distance. I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed a marvel of technology and engineering.
I love these HUD videos. I'm always shocked by the 10kft/min descent rate and the front gear always sounds like a bomb went off when it touches down. They definitely built those things to take a beating.
They built them to require a billion dollars of refurbishment between every flight 🤣. A billion dollars should get you a few hours of mechanic time to work on the gear after these hard landings.
I remember one of the astronauts saying that it didn’t matter if they’d land off the centerline as long as they stopped on the centerline for the photo op.
HUD courtesy of Kaiser Electronics formerly of San Jose, CA. Was derived from the small HUD in the AH-1S. We were told that the HUD significantly decreased landing workload. Kaiser, purchased by Rockwell Collins in 2000, was one of the early innovators in HUD technology: A-10, Alpha Jet, F-14A, F-18, F-15E, A-12, ... Also early innovation in HMD technology: Agile Eye prototypes, JHMCS, F-35.
@@bigbaddms Kaiser Aerospace & Electronics was founded in 1976 when big Kaiser sold of Kaiser Industries. Kaiser Electronics was one of the KA&E companies. KA&E was purchased by Dr. Joe Smead (and backers) at that time. Oh, and I left F-117 off the list.
@@Tigershark_3082 Most likely the Kurnass 2000 HUD was a slightly modified F-15E holographic HUD. Might even have been built under license, but Elbit(?) would have source the combiner from the Ann Arbor (?) facility. That HUD was Kaiser's first of that type; we won the proposal with a design that actually didn't fit (don't tell), but we shrunk the drawings 10% in the proposal. Got it to work during development. Interesting tidbit: the A-12 Avenger used a similar HUD. Kaiser built 2-3 during development which was subsequently canceled by Dick Cheney. Some years later one of the development HUDs showed up on ebay.
The great complimentary video to the one you posted yesterday about riding into space with video from the SRBs. Now we can come back down to Earth. Perfect symmetry.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be starting our descent from 30,000 ft, please make your way back to your seats, fasten your seatbelts and replace your tray table. I'd like to thank you for flying with us ... shit, we're down!"
Salute to the men and women of NASA, their families, and to those that have paid the ultimate price in support of the space program. _Thank you all for making us proud._ - Your fellow American -
Rotation seemed a little heavy. You have to land the shuttle on the rear and keep the nose up for a little distance as you continue to bleed air speed. Then you need to bring the nose down, but the wings because of the angle of attack bring it down hard. You basically have to balance it and try to ease it down or else potentially damage the gear. It's a very short window to have the air speed to keep the front aloft and then pitch it over.
Back in the days, a friend of my father told us that when he tried to land that Beast in Flight Sim with a Sidewinder FF : "God damn it. It is like trying to land a brick falling. I can't do it, no matter how hard I try" So now, this video put this claim into perspective. Thanks.
People tend to think of the approach to the landing as a "glide approach". Technically correct but a "free fall" would be closer to the truth. The shuttles rate of descent during the initial phase and through the "180" maneuver is in excess of 27,000 feet per minute. If you threw a manhole cover out of an aircraft at the same altitude, the shuttle will have landed before the steel manhole cover, which only falls at just over 10,000 fpm!!!
@@clydedonaldson7369 I agree with the guy above. Do you really think, and I mean be logical, that a man hole cover made out of cast iron (which is one of the densest materials readily available) would fall slower than an spacecraft which is made to be lightweight and is mostly empty space?
Started at 33Kft and 2 minutes later they’re at ~8K, that’s ~12,500fpm or 142mph; pretty much free falling ‘til they flare. I low approached the runway in my Mooney at half the speed of the Shuttle’s touchdown speed; as usual, no touching the rwy and stay west of the center line.
Being IMC on final makes this a bit interesting. The HUD guidance and outline of the runway...essential. A lot of stuff coming together to make this landing successful.
System which made that possible was called MSBLS, pronounced “Miss-Bliss.” Modern Cat-3 ILS systems pale in comparison, capability /resolution wise (but are much more serviceable).
Spent my adult life at KSC, first as an engineer, Then manager of Atlantis from about 6 months post Columbia till we handed her over to the museum team after she was safed. Got to fly the stationary sim several times, loved flying my girl. A few of the "hardcore" astronauts from the early shuttle selection crews flew her the whole way home on CSS vs the current method of FPO/CSS going into the HAC only. Some incredible pilots have sat in the commanders seat, bigger balls than I would ever have.
These pilots really were steely eyed missile men. No second chances as was purely a glider once it had re entered the atmosphere. In fact one of the Apollo 13 pilots flew the shuttle during one of its earliest missions. Real balls of steel stuff.
Two things struck me about this. First, I had no idea that they hand flew the landing. I guess I always assumed it was done on autopilot. Second, as a pilot with an instrument rating, I was surprised at how much the verbiage was similar to what we said. They called it a “plane” and talked about the glide slope, for instance. I get not wanting to stop. Who would want that experience to ever end?
They (we) were/are not stationary. We are on tectonic plates moving about the earths surface while spinning on the earths axis, rotating around the sun, the solar system rotating around the galaxy, the galaxy speeding through the universe.
And I'm still doing bucking, bouncing landings in a Cessna in Infinite Flight, can't imagine how many times I would have destroyed a Shuttle!😮😅 Definitely envious of any astronaut that gets to go to up but extra respect for the Shuttle commanders who had to actually land these marvels of engineering knowing it was one shot deal. 👍👏🚀🚀
This is my very first space shuttle landing video I have ever watched! It is superb! It was awesome what these space vehicles were capable of doing. I miss them dearly!
Like sailplanes, no go around. Had the pleasure of shooting Spave Shuttle approaches with a Shuttle pilot after I gave his annual Emergency procedures in the T-38 simulator. You fully configure the T-38 then dip the nose down to 300 knots. Aim 1 mile short of the runway and when you hit normal glodeslope,level off and point down the runway. Then plan on touching down around 190 knots.
When you think that the Shuttle had 5 computers on board, all in the megabyte range (not Gb)! Not one had the power to even store a photo of the Shuttle itself….. Astronauts are the greatest!
space shuttle.. you with the petite wings! go around! there are important people on approach😆:) man i miss the shuttle. the new rockets are awesome ... they just dont have that shuttleness about them though. its like theyre actually too good :)
What a lot of people don't know is that the space shuttle landed with no power. It was a glider. To land something that heavy with short stubby wings and no possible go around says a lot about our shuttle pilots.
6,000 foot ceiling, they've been weightless for days, the controls must feel heavy, they're falling like a rock. They make it look easy but it takes cojones of steel.
"This isn't flying. This is falling with style."
Right ! It isn´t flying, it´s gliding . . . . a special kind of.
@@kyletrummel69 Buzz Lightyear AKA Buzz Aldrin would agree.
I love when he said "I don't want to stop"
@@wernerschulte6245 i wouldnt call it gliding bro, it was litterally just falling
Losing 15,000 feet in a 360 degree turn is mind boggling. They really were flying a brick.
From space, through the atmosphere at 15,000 mph, turn, through the clouds, and hit the center of the runway!! WOW!
A lot of of it was guided by the computer. At some point, final approach was manual
The skill level is top notch. It drops like a rock and they are unpowered. Amazing.
It’s amazing to know that the US test pilots back in the 1960s perfected the “Spot Landing” procedures using the F-104 during the X-15 flight test era (199 test flights). After the speed and altitude runs by the X-15, it was essentially a glider to the landing. Amazing science, ingenuity, and talent.
The F-104 was basically a jet powered missile with wings. I always liked them, I had models of them when I was a kid.
I am not an astronaut but I was fortunate enough to fly the full motion shuttle simulator at JSC before it was dismantled. I am a commercial pilot and I found the Shuttle HUD quite intuitive. The control stick, however, had an unusual movement and was very sensitive. It required small, short inputs and I can see the actuations in this video. It was relatively easy to land the Shuttle (simulator) safely as long as you followed the HUD cues. Getting a GOOD landing was more challenging due to the approach speed and control sensitivity. I floated one landing and lightly bounced another. But we would have walked away from both attempts 😂
I wish I could have flown it
I worked with a woman that had worked on the software for the shuttle flight simulator. She said after the first shuttle mission returned, the pilots told them that they had really nailed it with the simulator. No surprises at all.
A lot of people don't understand that these guys only had one shot to land, no "go arounds". Impressive stuff.
AKA "dead stick".
Shuttle was an amazing accomplishment for the early seventies. 10 degree angle of attack. Gear deployed at 300 feet. Ultimate x plane product.
Who is alot of people?
@@whynot8082 More than 1.
@mvg2x34 on one of the early landings, the gear was deployed almost at touch down!
30k to full stop in 4mins. ROFL. Nuts.
I believe it but don’t believe it. That 100 ton brick can’t land like that. But it did 130 times or however many it was. Unreal.
That's descending @ 85+ mph. That's just a wee better glide slope than a rock.
@@ThePorgie at that speed you'd expect an impact, not a landing.
Though it's really impressive just how fast it bleeds off speed. From beginning the flare to touchdown over 100 kts deceleration in just 20 seconds. If they took the nose up any earlier it WOULD likely fall like a brick.
Correct me if I'm wrong, the video starts at 33k.
@@Adwaenyth thankfully they had the fly-by-wire system to help them nail the maneuvers
But yeah still completely nuts
There was a point just as they broke thru the clouds at around 6000 ft , you realize this landing more like a controlled crash of a carrier landing , the nose down angle before the flare was unnervingly steep . The skill and composure of the crew was top notch otherworldly .
Best shuttle HUD video yet!
Cool part of this video is it starts with the Pilot (who is actually the "copilot") flying the Shuttle for some stick time granted by the Commander before transferring controls back to the Commander to complete the approach and landing. Very cool.
No. There is no "granting" of stick time in the shuttle, there is not any unplanned graciousness. They operate by procedure and checklist. Whoever has the controls at any particular time was meant to have the controls at the time for some particular reason.
“I have the airplane” absolutely epic teamwork. Beautiful.
I had the good fortune of visiting KSC several times for work. I used to watch the pilots practice their dead stick landings in the Gulfstream II they used as a trainer. The approach angle is VERY steep. I had the good fortune of walking on the MLP while it was on Pad A. I walked under the shuttle tail so close I could almost touch it. I also got to watch a launch from the VAB. If you've ever heard a fighter on burners you know how loud that is. Multiply that by 2-3 and you will get the feeling of the sound level. I remember about 20 seconds after the roll, it takes that long for the sound to cross the swamp and reach the VAB, the noise level was deafening, and that is from 4 miles distance. I consider myself very fortunate to have witnessed a marvel of technology and engineering.
Thanks for sharing, great experiences!
And this is why they practice everything as much as they do!
The pride is to land straddling the center line-
every time!
That happy laughter after touchdown made me smile 🙂
I love these HUD videos. I'm always shocked by the 10kft/min descent rate and the front gear always sounds like a bomb went off when it touches down. They definitely built those things to take a beating.
They built them to require a billion dollars of refurbishment between every flight 🤣. A billion dollars should get you a few hours of mechanic time to work on the gear after these hard landings.
The Cessna 172s my flight school uses still somehow get more abuse
I remember one of the astronauts saying that it didn’t matter if they’d land off the centerline as long as they stopped on the centerline for the photo op.
That sounds like something a pilot in those years might say. Fantastic.
HUD courtesy of Kaiser Electronics formerly of San Jose, CA. Was derived from the small HUD in the AH-1S. We were told that the HUD significantly decreased landing workload. Kaiser, purchased by Rockwell Collins in 2000, was one of the early innovators in HUD technology: A-10, Alpha Jet, F-14A, F-18, F-15E, A-12, ... Also early innovation in HMD technology: Agile Eye prototypes, JHMCS, F-35.
Same Kaiser as all the other related companies I’m sure
@@bigbaddms Kaiser Aerospace & Electronics was founded in 1976 when big Kaiser sold of Kaiser Industries. Kaiser Electronics was one of the KA&E companies. KA&E was purchased by Dr. Joe Smead (and backers) at that time. Oh, and I left F-117 off the list.
@@2011Rick I believe Kaiser also made the Wide-Angle HUD for the Israeli Kurnass 2000, which was their major Phantom upgrade from the late 1980s.
@@Tigershark_3082 Most likely the Kurnass 2000 HUD was a slightly modified F-15E holographic HUD. Might even have been built under license, but Elbit(?) would have source the combiner from the Ann Arbor (?) facility. That HUD was Kaiser's first of that type; we won the proposal with a design that actually didn't fit (don't tell), but we shrunk the drawings 10% in the proposal. Got it to work during development. Interesting tidbit: the A-12 Avenger used a similar HUD. Kaiser built 2-3 during development which was subsequently canceled by Dick Cheney. Some years later one of the development HUDs showed up on ebay.
Always incredible to me that this could even be engineered. Amazing American work. 🇺🇸
One shot! No go arounds. Nailed it..
Great HUD shot, especially through those clouds!
Also, right at the end when you see the camera tip down is when the nose finally comes down onto the tarmac.
The great complimentary video to the one you posted yesterday about riding into space with video from the SRBs. Now we can come back down to Earth. Perfect symmetry.
Rate of descent was insane with these shuttles. Amazing video and skills.
Glad you enjoyed it!
" I dont want to stop" Yes, I absolutely get that. What a hero
"I don't wanna stop"
I feel you... I wouldn't either. What a privilege to fly such a legend.
😱 This video is amazing, thank you very much Shuttlesource 🤜🤛👨🚀
Hail Space Shuttle Program ❤️
Glad you liked it!
They made that look a lot easier than it probably was.
I'm so happy to know you're getting better. Sending good vibes your way. You're one of the Good Ones. Peace and light.
Beautiful! I never get tired of these views.
Glad you enjoy it!
Incredible piece of machinery. 17000 mph to zero.
The sonic booms I will never forget being a teenager in that era ❤
Was at Edwards for a 2 am landing in cold weather ....the sonic booms almost knocked you over. Super loud in those atmospheric conditions 😮
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will shortly be starting our descent from 30,000 ft, please make your way back to your seats, fasten your seatbelts and replace your tray table. I'd like to thank you for flying with us ... shit, we're down!"
What they are doing is keeping that box lined up with the dot. I’d like to know more about how they determine how the dot is positioned
Salute to the men and women of NASA, their families, and to those that have paid the ultimate price in support of the space program.
_Thank you all for making us proud._
- Your fellow American -
Holy crap, when I saw the video was from 30,000ft to landing in 4m 40m I thought it was going to be some sort of time lapse. Geez.
Rotation seemed a little heavy. You have to land the shuttle on the rear and keep the nose up for a little distance as you continue to bleed air speed. Then you need to bring the nose down, but the wings because of the angle of attack bring it down hard. You basically have to balance it and try to ease it down or else potentially damage the gear. It's a very short window to have the air speed to keep the front aloft and then pitch it over.
Back in the days, a friend of my father told us that when he tried to land that Beast in Flight Sim with a Sidewinder FF :
"God damn it. It is like trying to land a brick falling. I can't do it, no matter how hard I try"
So now, this video put this claim into perspective. Thanks.
I wouldn't want to stop either. Perfect landing
"I don't want to stop.". A true astronaut!
I heard the shuttle's "aerodynamics" described as a rock with wings, but this really shows it...falling with style indeed...
People tend to think of the approach to the landing as a "glide approach". Technically correct but a "free fall" would be closer to the truth. The shuttles rate of descent during the initial phase and through the "180" maneuver is in excess of 27,000 feet per minute. If you threw a manhole cover out of an aircraft at the same altitude, the shuttle will have landed before the steel manhole cover, which only falls at just over 10,000 fpm!!!
So amazing.
Your stats are cool, but are taken for different air pressures/densities. It’s not entirely accurate
Stop being Mr know it all
@@clydedonaldson7369 I agree with the guy above. Do you really think, and I mean be logical, that a man hole cover made out of cast iron (which is one of the densest materials readily available) would fall slower than an spacecraft which is made to be lightweight and is mostly empty space?
@@JamesMathison98 ruclips.net/video/_mCC-68LyZM/видео.htmlsi=L-_DoF8tBoLPJSDy
Very different approach angle compared to a plane. So cool.
A fantastic piece of precision gliding. Awesome
„ Piece of cake !” ( Clint Eastwood ) . But the „cake ” is made with 1,348,200 pieces of „ingredients ” ... !!! SUPERB !!!!
I love how at the end the pilot makes a joke and the copilot gets it and has a hearty laugh for a sec
Flying Brick ! Most pilots cant do a landing as good as this in a simple to fly aircraft !
Pchshpff yeah these foolish pilots not able to land a simple aircraft that well!
If they could get a washing machine to fly
pop-culture references are fun.
Started at 33Kft and 2 minutes later they’re at ~8K, that’s ~12,500fpm or 142mph; pretty much free falling ‘til they flare. I low approached the runway in my Mooney at half the speed of the Shuttle’s touchdown speed; as usual, no touching the rwy and stay west of the center line.
t’was spectacular coming through those clouds. surprised how much that nose wheel impacted on final rotation. beautiful landing.
Amazing again to think one shot landings. I’d love to hear any close calls or almost missed approaches
Columbia.
Isn't it funny how a highly skilled pilot can make it look so incredibly easy! 😂
Reminds me of videos of F-16 engine-out landings but 50%+ faster and 10x heavier vehicle. Impressive stuff.
Being IMC on final makes this a bit interesting. The HUD guidance and outline of the runway...essential. A lot of stuff coming together to make this landing successful.
System which made that possible was called MSBLS, pronounced “Miss-Bliss.” Modern Cat-3 ILS systems pale in comparison, capability /resolution wise (but are much more serviceable).
Wow, nerves of steel.
incredible piloting by the best of the best!
I've never had a regular airline land as smoothly as that, and he'd come from space with no go around if he got it wrong...class!
yeah ok
I bet you have
Kinda. If you watch the exterior view, when the shoot opens, the nose hits hard. You can hear it in this video. Commercial lands smoother than that.
Commercial airliners do make smooth landings. Let stop bashing pilots for a slightly bumpy landing.
What always amazes me is that they pulled off a perfect landing on every single mission, no chance of a go around of course
A few of the ones out in the desert were less than perfect.
yeah they did something called practice
@@AndreiTupolev they also use runways long enough to film Fast & Furious on.
Spent my adult life at KSC, first as an engineer, Then manager of Atlantis from about 6 months post Columbia till we handed her over to the museum team after she was safed. Got to fly the stationary sim several times, loved flying my girl. A few of the "hardcore" astronauts from the early shuttle selection crews flew her the whole way home on CSS vs the current method of FPO/CSS going into the HAC only. Some incredible pilots have sat in the commanders seat, bigger balls than I would ever have.
Thanks, sounds like good times at KSC
Dang engineers and there acronyms.....
Yeah can you expand the acronyms please?
Did the file and IFR flight plan!?!.. That was a bit of scary IMC.. ;). These Men and women... Best of the best!
These pilots really were steely eyed missile men. No second chances as was purely a glider once it had re entered the atmosphere. In fact one of the Apollo 13 pilots flew the shuttle during one of its earliest missions. Real balls of steel stuff.
That thing dropped like a brick! Impressive.
And it was covered in bricks as well. Around 17,000 I think.
Two things struck me about this. First, I had no idea that they hand flew the landing. I guess I always assumed it was done on autopilot.
Second, as a pilot with an instrument rating, I was surprised at how much the verbiage was similar to what we said. They called it a “plane” and talked about the glide slope, for instance.
I get not wanting to stop. Who would want that experience to ever end?
Master Class in Energy Management
1,000 feet - gear is armed!
10 seconds later:
200 feet - gear is coming!
10 seconds later:
100 feet - gear is down!
10 seconds later:
Touchdown!
Easy! 😎🤟🏻
I was amazed that they put gear down at 200 feet. Then I got worried it wouldn't be down in time 🤣
@@mike9347 You should check out a video of it coming down. It deploys really fast.
"Endeavour, Houston. There is an aircraft on the runway. Cancel landing clearance, go around!"
And to think, We'll never see it again.
too damn cool! Love that bird!
Right on center, beautiful!
It doesn't matter where you are at touch down, just make sure it's on the centre line when it stops.
Amazing
Seen a few landings at Edwards.....it's a very steep approach for sure touch down at 230 ish mph.....it makes a lot of wind noise when it goes by.
Crazy to think that when they stopped on the runway, it was the first time they were all stationary since the second they launched.
The Earth is still rotating on its axis and orbiting the Sun... none of us have ever been stationary...
They (we) were/are not stationary.
We are on tectonic plates moving about the earths surface while spinning on the earths axis, rotating around the sun, the solar system rotating around the galaxy, the galaxy speeding through the universe.
ye, aircrafts usually work that way. they are moving between runways
@szivacs Curious, are you a natural AH or do you have to practice.
I went to see a few SS landings , was really cool to see !
Can someone explain what the knocking noises were?
Was that the sonic booms or something else?
And I'm still doing bucking, bouncing landings in a Cessna in Infinite Flight, can't imagine how many times I would have destroyed a Shuttle!😮😅 Definitely envious of any astronaut that gets to go to up but extra respect for the Shuttle commanders who had to actually land these marvels of engineering knowing it was one shot deal. 👍👏🚀🚀
Incredible job
This is my very first space shuttle landing video I have ever watched! It is superb! It was awesome what these space vehicles were capable of doing. I miss them dearly!
We need to get the shuttles going again.
Where were these guys the last time I flew into O'Hare in winter time.
Can you do STS 109 launch from the shuttle cockpit with the audio?
Apparently it is like flying a brick but they don’t have engines they are gliding
oh geez a big heavy unpowered barely aerodynamic bastard like that pitching and rolling that much is terrifying...
Amazing and exciting to view this! I am very interested however what that knocking / tapping sound is from shuttle voice?
Reminds me of the quote from the movie Space Cowboys, "flying brick".
Like sailplanes, no go around. Had the pleasure of shooting Spave Shuttle approaches with a Shuttle pilot after I gave his annual Emergency procedures in the T-38 simulator. You fully configure the T-38 then dip the nose down to 300 knots. Aim 1 mile short of the runway and when you hit normal glodeslope,level off and point down the runway. Then plan on touching down around 190 knots.
Sounds like a good time!
PERFECTION
When you think that the Shuttle had 5 computers on board, all in the megabyte range (not Gb)! Not one had the power to even store a photo of the Shuttle itself….. Astronauts are the greatest!
space shuttle.. you with the petite wings! go around! there are important people on approach😆:) man i miss the shuttle. the new rockets are awesome ... they just dont have that shuttleness about them though. its like theyre actually too good :)
They should have built a replacement series of shuttles with the ability to reach moon orbit.
be weird to see what the speed and altitude read outs are when in space.....
100 feet gear down..😮 Fantastic
Nothing less than perfect
These guys hit centerline from orbit. I have no excuse.
They didn't. Not that it matters, but they didn't
one shot, no pressure. so cool =]
What is their sink rate on final?
10,000 feet per minute.
Gear down at 100 feet. Amazing.
Ohcorbloodyblimey that was a steep approach!! Damn good landing considering it's a glider with the flying abilities of a department store!
Better hope your glide slope is on par
Only get one chance
Wow does that thing ever drop fast.
This never gets old. Great stuff!
1:08 "Dave, stop tapping the mic"
What a lot of people don't know is that the space shuttle landed with no power. It was a glider. To land something that heavy with short stubby wings and no possible go around says a lot about our shuttle pilots.
EVERYONE knows that.
Be... the ball. Be...... be the ball.
6,000 foot ceiling, they've been weightless for days, the controls must feel heavy, they're falling like a rock. They make it look easy but it takes cojones of steel.
There is an app in the Apple App Store that is a simulation of landing the shuttle. Very, very realistic. Highly recommended.
They dont seem to be in there anymore as they dont update it.
true, this video reminds me of that game
Man I think I used to play that game 10 years ago