From: snidely.too@gmail.com   
      
   Remember  Saturday, when  JF Mezei asked plainitively:   
   > On 2021-07-17 13:12, Snidely wrote:   
   >   
   >> The shuttle couldn't do level flight, except maybe in the hypersonic   
   >> portion of its flight.   
   >   
   > Thanks.  In a re-entry sequence, there would not have been any need for   
   > level flight, but got curious if it could have had they wanted to.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >> But it wasn't ballistic, either.  It was a   
   >> glider, but with a very poor glide slope in the subsonic portions.   
   >   
   > This is partly why I got curious. At time of landing, it has bled off   
   > most of its speed and yet still able to get its vertical speed down to   
   > what an airlineer would have touching down on runway.   
   >   
   > So was curious on whether at higher altitudes/speeds, its wings could   
   > create lift to keep level flight or whether the wings act more like a   
   > parachute (drag for vertical speed) than a lift  creating device.   
   >   
   > Different question: did the shuttle have any cross range capacbility for   
   > forward speed? Or was the east west component dictated by when de-orbit   
   > burn was done and the shuttle only had left/right cross range via its   
   > aerodynamic surfaces?   
   >   
   > aka: if the shuttle kept its nose a bit more up during aerodynamic   
   > phase, could it end up landing further east?   or would doing so result   
   > in faster bleeding of airspeed followed by faster descent rate and end   
   > up touching ground at roughly same spot?   
      
   There was no opportunity for a go-around.  The kinetic energy was   
   managed very carefully.  The flight path was just enough to get them to   
   the runway, with some margin for having to go around something like a   
   thunderstorm cell (which could pop up after the go/no-go decision,   
   perhaps).   
      
   /dps   
      
   --   
   I have always been glad we weren't killed that night.  I do not know   
   any particular reason, but I have always been glad.   
     _Roughing It_, Mark Twain   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)