Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!alan
From: alan@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Alan Phillips)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Why is the orbiter launched upside down?
Message-ID: <1013@dcl-vitus.comp.lancs.ac.uk>
Date: 6 Sep 90 09:39:42 GMT
Reply-To: alan@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Alan Phillips)
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University, UK.
Lines: 13

I'm a casual visitor to this group, so apologies if this question is fequently
asked and answered, and more so if it's fundamentally stupid :-)

Why does the stack roll after lift off to bring the orbiter upside down?
Is it to make an RTLS abort easier, allowing the stack to do a loop and
come out with the orbiter the right way up without needing a 180 degree
roll, or is there a fundamental aerodynamic reason?

I have a recollection that one of the problems with launches from Vandenberg
was that the stack needed to be the other way up (orbiter the right way up).
What was the reasoning there?

Thanks, Alan Phillips.