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More on Shuttle landing

The shuttle started landing at 4:06 a.m. Pacific time by firing its engines over the Indian Ocean for more than two minutes in what is known as a de-orbit burn. About 30 minutes later, at an altitude of 76 miles, the shuttle entered the atmosphere at a maximum speed of more than 16,000 mph, guided at first by its steering jets and later, as the atmosphere became thicker, by its wing flaps and rudder.

During the computer-controlled descent, Discovery bled off excess energy and reduced its speed by performing a series of four banks. The shuttle streaked across the California coast from the southwest and flew north of Los Angeles on a course that took it between Oxnard and Ventura.

Once Discovery’s velocity dropped below the speed of sound, Collins took over the controls and brought the spacecraft - now essentially a brick with wings - in for its approach. She executed a 196-degree turn to line up with Edwards’ 15,000-foot concrete runway 2-2. Main gear touched down and the parachute was deployed; the nose gear touched down immediately after, at 5:11 a.m. PDT, one minute ahead of schedule.

posted by: kyawoo at 20:24 | link | comments |
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