Cockpit View Of Shuttle Landing

Space Shuttle landing.. View from the cockpit For my flying friends, no explanation needed. For the non-flying friends, the following is information that should help understand what is going on and what to look for. The video attached to this file is an impressive cockpit view of the landing of a space shuttle at Edwards AFB, California to Runway 22 (southwest direction). The view is through the cockpit window with a HUD (Head Up Display) superimposed in front of the window. The HUD makes it possible for the astronaut to look out of the space shuttle, yet have the relevant information to fly and land in the space shuttle altitude, speed, on course or not, wings level, etc. (no need to glance down at his instruments). The video opens with the space shuttle flying in an easterly direction in preparation to land. There is some light conversation among the crew about a cloud cover - an under cast. You will see the under cast (clouds) at the bottom of the picture with the atmosphere giving off a faint color differentiation and then the darkening shades of blue to dark space. One crew member is backing up the flying astronaut by reminding him of the next events important because there is little to no room for error as the space shuttle is one giant glider with no chance to add power or go around. Just short of 3 minutes into the video, one crew member gives the flying astronaut a point when he should start a right turn for the runway. At about 3:10 in the video, the astronaut ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOqVMB9aj5k&hl=en