I believe that in one of the books about Richard Feynman, he is quoted =
as saying that the "pilot" does not actually fly the shuttle.  He =
selects from one of three pushbuttons to tell the on-board flight =
computer which airfield has been chosen for landing. The on-board =
computer is responsible for controlling the shuttle descent until it has =
been brought to a dead stop.  I seem to recall that the computer is even =
responsible for applying the brakes.

The following link quotes Feynman as saying the pilot is responsible for =
lowering the landing gear.  If that were changed, complete automatic =
control of ascent and descent would be possible. =20

http://history.nasa.gov/rogersrep/v2appf.htm



-----Original Message-----
From: Herbert Graf [mailto:mailinglist@FARCITE.NET]
Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 1:08 PM
To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: [PICLIST] shuttle damage


> >can the shuttle re-enter and land by remote control?
>
> Well my understanding is that at the time of re-entry it is under =
fully
> automatic computer control. Any sort of manual intervention cannot be =
done
> fast enough to get out of trouble.

        True, but aren't that last stages of touch down always done =
manually? Even
if they are it is likely an autopilot could do it if necessary. TTYL

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