Astronaut...for an hour.

This week at work, I finally got to play the role of an astronaut. I finally got my ride in the motion based shuttle simulator. The motion based simulator is used to simulate ascent and entry for the crew.

Once strapped in to the the 5-point harness, we were maneuvered into the launch position. The simulator has 6 degrees of freedom and can pitch to the vertical position. So, there we are, on our backs watching the clock slowly click away to zero. Around 6 seconds remaining, the main engines light up to full power and off the pad we jump when the SRBs light up at zero time. There is some vibration as we ascend. And then there is the "noise" of the SRBs. Around the 2 minute mark, the SRBs burnout and are jettisoned...the vibration stops...the "noise" stops. And we are still climbing uphill.

However, in this simulation, we'll never make it to orbit. A system problem forces us back to the cape. The computer maneuvers us to an attitude such that we are burning off the fuel and no longer gaining altitude. This attitude also stops our easterly trajectory and brings us back to the west. We gain velocity towards the west and then dump the ET when it's out of propellant.

Now we become the flying brick. A heavy glider. We come in for the approach and land on the runway and come to a stop on the centerline.

Unfortunately, that was the end of our motion based ride. But the fun was not over. We, the students, got a chance to land the orbiter from 50,000 feet. Well...that was a fun hour.

The reports from the real astronauts are that the ascent portion of the motion based simulator is fairly accurate. There is a bit more vibration and a bit more noise on the real ascent, but the general feeling is the same.

My landing wasn't too bad. I was 4 feet off of centerline and about 130 feet down from the target touchdown point. My approach speed was about 6kts faster than ideal and my sink rate was about 3 ft/sec higher than ideal. Other than that, i was able to bring her to a stop on the centerline.

Here are a few pictures of me in the pilot's seat.