[−]burnerRhodov3 · 2026-11-15 Sun 16:55 UTC ·
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Oh... you just met a big space shuttle nerd.
This is not true... The shuttle mission was highly automated. Launch, orbit, reentry was all automated. They only needed human pilots to land on the runway because their algo's weren't good enough. Which, again, was one of many design failures of the shuttle. Having humans on board only slightly increased the chance of success according to nasa. other failures were their ablative heat shield ontop of the ceramica, the carbon-on-carbon plating around the aluminum housing, using aluminum as the body and fins instead of steel, AND DROPPING THEIR BOOSTERS IN THE FUCKING OCEAN.
As opposed to dropping them in the desert or a town? The risk appetite was not there at all to figure out safe capture of the boosters. And if they had the allowance to tackle that problem, it would have been better focussed on improving the shuttle itself, fixing the problems GP has outlined.
Of all the issues, "dropping their boosters in the fucking ocean" probably doesn't even make top 10.
[−]burnerRhodov3 · 2026-11-15 Sun 17:20 UTC ·
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i'm talking about recovery. They couldn't because they caught it with parachutes.
Again, stage zero is a huge enegineering challange and issue that Nasa didn't even attempt to solve because it was too hard.
Buran proved there was no technical obstacle to uncrewed runway landing, the US could have achieved it a few years earlier if it was a priority. The Buran landing system was more complex than you might expect, and proved to be pretty adaptable in its only orbital flight.
[−]burnerRhodov3 · 2026-11-15 Sun 18:03 UTC ·
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no, you missed what i said. Having humans only slightly improved the odds of mission success... Meaning they did have algorithms to autonomously land on a runway.. They chose not to.
This is not true... The shuttle mission was highly automated. Launch, orbit, reentry was all automated. They only needed human pilots to land on the runway because their algo's weren't good enough. Which, again, was one of many design failures of the shuttle. Having humans on board only slightly increased the chance of success according to nasa. other failures were their ablative heat shield ontop of the ceramica, the carbon-on-carbon plating around the aluminum housing, using aluminum as the body and fins instead of steel, AND DROPPING THEIR BOOSTERS IN THE FUCKING OCEAN.
As opposed to dropping them in the desert or a town? The risk appetite was not there at all to figure out safe capture of the boosters. And if they had the allowance to tackle that problem, it would have been better focussed on improving the shuttle itself, fixing the problems GP has outlined.
Of all the issues, "dropping their boosters in the fucking ocean" probably doesn't even make top 10.
Again, stage zero is a huge enegineering challange and issue that Nasa didn't even attempt to solve because it was too hard.