Shuttle Deorbiting

[mabdo]

Does the shuttle reenter the earth atmosphere nose first or tail first?

 

[harmonicaman]

Link

 

[vogon13]

Nose first, pitched up 40 degrees.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Make that almost belly first. If you ride the shuttle back on the flight deck, do not expect to see the horizon out the front window.<br /><br />Tail first would be another Columbia-type incident. However, the OMS system is back there, so the orbiter has to go through a couple of yaw manuevers. (I could be wrong there. They might use pitch thrusters instead. Ask Shuttle_Guy. He would know.) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[qso1]

They do, the shuttle usually fires its OMS engines tail pointed in the direction of flight. Then with the ACS, it sort of rotates towards the direction of flight and positions itself approximately 40 degrees nose up to expose the lower fuselage tiles to atmospheric friction. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

I like to watch reentries on NASA TV. (I watched only the beginning of Columbia's final reentry, then had to leave to go to rehearsal. It was quite a shock to arrive and hear the bad news, because all was well when I left home.)<br /><br />The Orbiter is tail first and head down when it fires the OMS. This is actually the normal attitude during orbital operations. Then it pitches over, with the tail going down and the nose going up until it's in the correct orientation for reentry. So there's the answer of whether it pitches (up/down) or yaws (left/right).<br /><br />For those who don't know, there are three axes along which an aircraft can maneuver. They also apply to boats, and I think the terminology actually comes from the nautical world. Pitching is pivoting up and down. Yawing is pivoting left and right. The third is roll, and it means exactly what you think it means. Many times, a vehicle will do more than one of these at once. For instance, airplanes usually bank when they turn, so they're technically yawing and rolling at the same time. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[qso1]

I should have said always or simply fires its engines in the direction of flight. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>