Stay updated with breaking news from Landing computer. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
It endures an incredible amount of heat. you can see that in some of the animation we are showing you here. next the shuttle goes through a series of rolls and banking maneuvers known as a bleed off. just like it sounds this process bleeds off excess energy and continues to help slow the shuttle down. you really have to do that after traveling so fast. jon: it s doing 17, 18,000 miles an hour at least when it starts the process. 25 miles out from the kennedy space center the shuttle s landing computer gives over control to the commander. the shuttle is now flown like an airplane but on final approach the shuttle s angle of decent is almost seven times steeper than that of a normal passenger jet. just 2,000 feet the commander pulls up the nose levels off the shuttle to land. you can see it all right here live on happening now as we said, less than one hour from now. ....