Have you got the “right stuff?”
During descent, the orbiter is an unpowered glider, so you will only have one chance to get it right. Astronauts used to call it a flying brick: because of its 200,000 lbs. gross weight and low lift over drag ratio, the approach is six times steeper and two times faster than a typical airliner approach.
Landing the orbiter takes practice, but the built-in autopilot demo and tutorials will get you started. After your first safe touchdown, chase that perfect landing, compare your high scores online with your friends, earn medals, and unlock achievements.
Experiment with different weather conditions, night approaches, and even emergency scenarios or system failures. At the end of each flight, watch a replay from different camera angles.
Striking realism
You control the orbiter’s pitch and roll axes by tilting your device. Alternatively, you may switch to on-screen analog sticks. Rudder, speed brake, gear, and chute are usually handled by the autopilot, but you can have full manual control if you like. For beginners, we’ve added rectangles that visualize the desired approach path.
Simply try to stay within the corridor of rectangles, and they’ll guide you right to the touchdown point. Advanced pilots can turn them off and rely on the instruments in the head-up display (HUD) instead. The simulated guidance, navigation and control (gnu) systems are authentic replications of their counterparts in the real orbiter, and the HUD features all the instruments real Space Shuttle commanders used to employ to skillfully land this unique aircraft. Now it’s your turn to give it a try.
