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What if I argue that the humans were only on the shuttle to make it re-useable, because that was the only way to land a spaceship in the 80s.
by codeulike 8y ago
What if I argue that the humans were only on the shuttle to make it re-useable, because that was the only way to land a spaceship in the 80s.
- mikeash 8y agoBuran was of similar vintage and could land autonomously. I don’t think there was anything preventing the Shuttle from having that capability, other than a lack of desire. As I recall, the hardware was fully capable of it except for being able to lower the landing gear, which the astronauts insisted on being manual because doing it at the wrong moment would be fatal.
- avar 8y agoThe Space Shuttle's reentry and landing was famously 99.99% performed by autopilot, with the 0.01% being lowering the landing gear[1], ostensibly so that the astronauts felt like they had something to do. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle#Re-entry_and_landing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle#Re-entry_and_lan...