THE SPACE SHUTTLE TRAINING PLANE

The Space Shuttle is a total bitch and a half to pilot.

By ALEX PASTERNACK

The Space Shuttle, which made a rare night landing last night in Florida, isn’t a plane so much as a delicate instrument made for getting the astronauts to and from space. Much like the way it leaves the Earth, it returns in surgical-like fashion, barreling out of space at Mach 3 and at 40 degrees, without power. Known as a “flying brick,” it only gets one chance to come down.

To learn how to land this $1.5 billion, 100-ton glider, you might think astronauts practice in a kick-ass simulator and some jet plane that resembles the shuttle. They have the simulator. But their fly jet, the Shuttle Training Aircraft is actually a modified 30-year-old Gulfstream II—the craft of choice for the Rolex-wearing, burgundy-suited executive of the 1970s.

Read the rest on Motherboard.

By ALEX PASTERNACK 1 year ago

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