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National Geographic : 1981 Oct
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California, we were doing Mach 7 and I could pick out Monterey Bay. We were about to enter the most uncertainpart of our flight. Up to this point, Columbia's course was controlled largely by firings of its re action control thrusters. But as the atmo sphere grew denser, the thrusters became less effective. Columbia's aerodynamiccon trols, such as its elevons and rudder, began to take over. We had more and more air building up on the vehicle, and we were goingfarfaster than a winged vehicle had everflown. More over, the thrusters were still firing. It was an approach with a lot of unknowns. Wind tunnels just cannot test such complex aero dynamics well. That was the main reason John took control of theflightfrom the auto mated system at a little under Mach 5. We had been doingrolls, using them a little like a skier uses turns to slow and control descent down a mountain. The flight plan calledfor John to fly the last two rolls manually. He wouldfly them more smoothly thanthe auto matic system, helping to avoid excessive sideslippingand ensuringthat we would not lose control as we came down the middle of our approachcorridor. IT TURNED OUT to be totally unneces sary for me to manually fly those last two roll reversals. Columbia had been flying like a champ. It has all those sensors: plat forms for attitude control, gyroscopes, and accelerometers. Its computers take all the data, assimilate it instantly, and use it to fire thrusters, drive elevons, or do anything needed to fly the vehicle. They are much -' - - faster at this than any man. The orbiter is a joy to fly. It does what you tell it to, even in very unstable regions. All I had to do was say, "I want to roll right," or "Put my nose here," and it did it. The vehicle went where I wanted it, and it stayed there until I moved the control stick to put it somewhere else. replacement logistics module. It Flying down the San Joaquin Valley exhila would take only six shuttle trips to rated me. What a way to come to California! build the space station, beginning Visibility was perfect. Given some airspeed at the earliest in 1989. Meanwhile, and altitude information, we could have the shuttle will carry, among other projects, a flying laboratory in landed visually. 1983, a powerful remote-controlled John did his last roll reversalat Mach 2.6. telescope in 1985, and a number of The thrusters had stopped firing by then, military payloads. and we shifted into an all-aerodynamic Columbia's Astronauts' Own Story 497
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