How to Land the Space Shuttle... from Space
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Published 2016-11-06
If you want to try landing the shuttle for yourself for fun, try F-Sim www.f-sim.com/ (I have no affiliation... just a fan).
Sorry about the autofocus (we disabled it in later talks). Me running around on stage didn't help. As always, send complaints to Steve.
If you're interested in more details on reentry and landing, I also wrote an answer on Stack Exchange Aviation: aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/21981/how-doe…
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This was one of nine "Tiny Talks" given over three days at the meetup. Every year, employees submit Tiny Talk ideas on a wide range of topics (some completely random and not company-related at all, like this one) and we vote on which ones we want to hear. So, thank you to my coworkers for voting me in.
Original proposal description I submitted for this talk:
Let's say you're traveling at about 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 km/h) in low earth orbit, your main engines are out of fuel, and it's your job to guide the spaceship through a fiery re-entry without burning up or skipping out of the atmosphere, navigate to your landing site, and arrive with just enough energy to make an unpowered landing on a runway which is halfway around the planet from where you started. And, of course, either you succeed on your first try, or everyone dies. So, no pressure…. In this talk, I'll show you how space shuttle designers, pilots, and autopilots managed to do just that.
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All real-life photos and videos (except the last slide) were produced by NASA. Everything that looks hand-drawn was done by me on a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet in ArtRage. Animations were done in After Effects. Between the concept, outline, script, artwork, animations, rehearsals, and editing, I spent somewhere around 200 hours over two months working on it. Very little time was spent researching. In case it wasn't obvious, I've been more than a little obsessed with the topic for years now.
All Comments (21)
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It has become tradition to rewatch this every so often
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I'm so glad I found this video, I've been stuck in orbit for 3 weeks.
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Not only is this informative about the shuttle, it's a masterclass in how to give a talk with slides.
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Thanks, the shuttle was making some weird noises so I was wondering what I was doing wrong! Solved the issue pretty quickly when I realised I was supposed to reenter with the payload bay doors closed. 100% recommend, would watch again.
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Descending from 37k to the runway in 3 minutes sounds like Ryanair
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Why am i watching this? I don’t even have a space shuttle lol
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My technique is very different in Kerbal Space Program. Usually involves vague guesswork and over/undershooting the runway and landing in either the sea or the desert.
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This is fantastic. You're awesome, Bret. I started my career on Shuttle, way before you were born. And I worked in a GN&C group and was friends with the fellow who basically wrote the Entry Guidance software. I don't know where you learned all this, but you got it right. Super fun video. I spent 19 years on that program, most fun time of my career. Take care!
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On the latest aircraft they have advanced the fly-by-wire system so much that the crew now consists of a pilot and a dog, the pilot is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to bite the pilot if he touches anything.
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They're not flying, they're falling with style
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Pilot: You look good Commander: I agree. That's the level of confidence I aspire to.
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It’s pretty insane to think about how before the first ever Space Shuttle flight, they had to figure all that out and do all the math to make sure it was possible. The astronauts in that very first flight had balls of steel
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This man is somehow extremely nervous and extremely confident at the same time
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Thank you, I was just on my way into reentry
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It's always nice to see someone talk about and explain something they're clearly very passionate about
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This is probably one of the best videos on Youtube -- your presentation is golden. I come back to this every so often to learn your presentation, and always find something new. Brilliant!
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recently got a space shuttle for Christmas and wanted to learn how to fly it. Thanks for the tips on re-entry. Edit: It’s been a while. Thanks for 3k likes and being cool in general! Fly safe and fly high!
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He seems like he was Mark Rober’s younger brother.
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This pops up for me a couple times a year, and for some reason I must watch it.
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Coming here from Scott Manley's video about how the Space Shuttle landed before GPS. Great talk!
