? how many does it take to land the space shuttle

[no_to_war_economy]

why not leave as many as possible on the space station (just in case)

is the space station not equipped to house any more than they have, I thought this shuttle mission brought X number of tons of supplies

shuttle schedule to land monday

[liberal N proud]

1. That would make too much sense!

[ElectricHermit]

2. Why

are so many acting like the shuttle is doomed. The problem with the tile sealing strips is well known.The shuttle has been brought back safely with entire tiles missing....how about some good vibes....:patriot:

[no_to_war_economy]

3. worst case scenario

I would side with caution due to recent track record

[Kraklen]

4. That would look bad.

Shuttles have been destroyed before because people didn't want to look bad.

[Johonny]

5. well

In case of what? They got to come down sometime. It's not like the shuttle is going to magically get safer. Given the threat of no shuttle lunches til they fix the foam problem. I'd want my butt on that ship going down.

[no_to_war_economy]

7. what? that is the ONLY way to get down

from the international space station, a trip on a shuttle ~ not

russians just launch rocket rides to and from the space station

[SeattleVet]

8. Current safety standards are that the number of crew aboard ISS

should never exceed the space available aboard the Soyuz for emergency evacuation purposes. This was implemented when the shuttle fleet was grounded. It would do little good to have 9 people aboard the ISS with only 2 emergency seats available for evacuation via the Soyuz.

As this flight (and the next, at the least) are considered to be test flights and we are not back to full operational status I think that this makes sense.

[Johonny]

9. Yeah

9 people in one Russian craft... Not gonna happen.

[Retired AF Dem]

6. None

It is done by computer. Carbon units are for backup.

[LastDemocratInSC]

10. Not quite correct

Two critical tasks of landing cannot currently be controlled by computer. The first is the deployment of air data sensors that collect airspeed, altitude and air temperature data. The second is the deployment of the shuttle's landing gear. Both are essential to a safe landing.

You can hear the capcom call to "Take air data" during the late phase of a shuttle approach. The decision to deploy the gear is the commander's. In both cases, the pilot flips switches to take these actions.

I'm not sure how the air data sensors are deployed. I do know that the landing gear are deployed by hydraulically lifting a hook arm that lets the gear fall under its own weight, along with the push of a spring to get it started.

From what I know, the cost to automate these tasks is quite high.

[Massacure]

11. The first shuttle flew with two people I think.