[ale] OT: Space Shuttle Columbia

[Jeff Hubbs]

> rendezvous or an "unusual" re-entry.  

This is just wild idle thinking, but could there be such a thing as a
temp-limited re-entry?

Everything about Orbiter re-entry is predicated on the notion of getting
it down to a certain altitude, speed, and heading at a certain location
on the Earth (essentially, the point of flare-out right before
landing).  What if you threw that out, decided you didn't give a crap
where it landed, and just tried to get it subsonic in an altitude range
where the crew could bail out?  I can imagine some kind of repeated
skipping operation, intentionally coming in a bit too shallow each
time.  I wonder if the simulators can even handle such.

- Jeff

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale