Re:SpaceX Is Raising $500M at a $30.5B Valuation
by codeulike on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @12:07PM
(#18708216)
What if I argue that the humans were only on the shuttle to make it re-useable, because that was the only way to land a spaceship in the 80s.
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Re:SpaceX Is Raising $500M at a $30.5B Valuation
by mikeash on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @12:50PM
(#18708697)
Buran was of similar vintage and could land autonomously. I don’t think there was anything preventing the Shuttle from having that capability, other than a lack of desire. As I recall, the hardware was fully capable of it except for being able to lower the landing gear, which the astronauts insisted on being manual because doing it at the wrong moment would be fatal.
Re:SpaceX Is Raising $500M at a $30.5B Valuation
by avar on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @01:37PM
(#18709213)
The Space Shuttle's reentry and landing was famously 99.99% performed by autopilot, with the 0.01% being lowering the landing gear[1], ostensibly so that the astronauts felt like they had something to do.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle#Re-entry_and_lan...