NASA Scary RTLS Launch Abort Simulation Space Shuttle Discovery STS-26 Practice

This was a simulation conducted by NASA's mission control and the astronauts of space shuttle Discovery before the flight of STS-26 which was the return to flight mission following the Challenger accident. They conducted many emergency simulations and practice countdowns, like they do for every launch. This simulation was carried over a satellite television feed, as was the normal practice back then. The video is footage of previous launches but the audio from flight controllers and the astronauts is the actual video of the simulation exercise. RTLS stands for "Return To Launch Site" abort and it's the most dangerous and risky type of abort that can occur if a main engine is lost early in the ascent. If the shuttle doesn't have the energy to reach a low orbit or land at one of the overseas emergency landing runways, the only options may be to either turn the shuttle around while it's still under power and fly back to Kennedy Space Center or ditch the orbiter in the ocean. During this simulation, they attempted to return to KSC but then lost all of the main engines and were forced to bail out of the orbiter over the Atlantic Ocean. Frightening, scary stuff even when it's just a simulation practice.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGyiLv6mPbg&hl=en