How to land the Space Shuttle from Space in 60 seconds #spaceshuttle #nasa #spacecraft #aviation

Here’s how you land the space shuttle from space in 60 seconds:
Firstly, you’re orbiting at 17,500 miles per hour, and you circle the globe every 90 minutes.

So, out here in space, you can’t turn; but you also aren’t affected by earth’s rotation. So you can just wait for your landing spot to come to you.

Then, you perform the de-orbit burn that uses the rest of your fuel, lasting about 3 minutes. That’s enough to get you into earth’s atmosphere. From here, you’re basically a glider.

But, as we get closer to the atmosphere, you pitch up to an angle of attack of 40 degrees so you don’t burn up from the huge amount of air resistance.

Once you’re in the atmosphere, your wings start to generate lift, and you risk bouncing back into space. So, you bank to the left and right in a series of S-turns to keep your descent rate.

Now, you get to an altitude of 20,000 feet, and you’re flying at 1700 miles per hour. But here’s the thing. The shuttle is not very aerodynamic. It’s effectively a “flying brick”.

So, you’re dropping at a rate of 10,000 feet per minute, a slope over 10 times steeper than the descent rate of a commercial airliner, basically the same rate as a skydiver in freefall.

So when you approach the runway, you start the pre-flare maneuver at 2,000 feet. You deploy the landing gear last minute at 300 feet, and touch down at 1.6 times the speed of a commercial airliner on landing.

What a journey, welcome back home from space!
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