Shuttle Training Aircraft
Shuttle Training Aircraft (STA) are NASA aircraft that simulate the handling and control of a space shuttle during landing in order to prepare the astronauts for landing. It is a modified Gulfstream II . The fleet has now been decommissioned after the shuttle program has ended.
Furnishing
The exterior has been modified so that it faithfully reproduces the high aerodynamic forces during the landing of a space shuttle, so that it lands much steeper than conventional aircraft.
The left seat in the cockpit of the STA is equipped just like the space shuttle, and the field of view has also been adjusted accordingly. The right seat is taken by an instructor and also has the controls that are usual for aircraft.
STA fleet
The STAs were stationed at Ellington Field near the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston . It is not known exactly how many STAs NASA had in service prior to retirement. The STAs have the following registration numbers:
- N944NA
- N945NA
- N946NA
- N947NA
- N949NA
With the termination of the shuttle program, the aircraft were taken out of NASA's flight operations, are currently mothballed and distributed to various NASA facilities. Since the aircraft are considered unsaleable because of their special features and features, they will most likely be shut down for good and prepared as exhibits. The Dryden Flight Research Center is in charge of the decommissioning, to which , for example, the aircraft with the number N944NA was transferred on August 19, 2011.
Incidents
During a training flight on December 2, 2003, an STA was approaching the Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center at an altitude of almost 4,000 meters when a cockpit display reported a problem with the thrust reversal . After landing, it was found that a part weighing 265 kg had come loose from the machine. It was later salvaged from the Banana River by divers . A flight ban was issued for the STAs until the cause of the incident was clarified. It turned out that the ground crew at Ellington had not been working according to the regulations. In addition, the team that transferred the STA from Ellington to the KSC had not carried out the usual check after a working day of 19.5 hours, nor had it documented it.
Individual evidence
- ↑ dryden flight research center, Marty Curry: Shuttle Training Aircraft to be Retired at NASA Dryden. Retrieved March 8, 2012 .
- ^ John Kelly: NASA ties bolt to training scare. Retrieved January 24, 2012 (first published in Florida Today).
