Xref: utzoo sci.aeronautics:94 sci.space:14366 sci.space.shuttle:3720 Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!skipper!shafer From: shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) Newsgroups: sci.aeronautics,sci.space,sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: X-30, Space Station Strangles NASP Message-ID: Date: 4 Oct 89 15:02:29 GMT References: <5292@eos.UUCP> <4983@omepd.UUCP> <1989Sep29.164255.28849@utzoo.uucp> <9991@venera.isi.edu> Sender: news@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov Organization: NASA Dryden, Edwards, Cal. Lines: 23 In-reply-to: raveling@isi.edu's message of 4 Oct 89 00:48:00 GMT In article <9991@venera.isi.edu> raveling@isi.edu (Paul Raveling) writes: Can any of the NASA folks post info on the shuttle's approaches? Isn't the standard pattern a simple 180? What sorts of descent rate or glide slope profile does the shuttle have as a function of altitude & airspeed? The shuttle comes in from the north to north east. It comes "feet dry" at about Mach 7 and 145K ft, it's overhead at Edwards at Mach 1 at about 40K ft. It does a HAC (Heading Alignment Circle) to put it on the runway heading (usually 17 or 22), so essentially the pattern is about a 270 teardrop with a longish final. I think it's a 20 deg glidepath, with a fairly short flair. Final is flown at 285 KEAS, gear deployed at 275 KEAS, touchdown at 185 KEAS. (I'm taking these figures from Young and Crippen's 1981 SETP paper on STS-1, so the speeds may not be exact for any given mission, but they're about right.) -- Mary Shafer shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA