Courtesy of NASA’s Beginner’s Guide to Aeronautics, a website targeted to children… Parts of Airplane Aircraft Rotations Ailerons (Roll) Horizontal stabilizer / elevators (Pitch) Vertical stabilizer / rudder (Yaw)

Another quotation from the 2011 AIR & SPACE COLLECTOR’S EDITION: SPACE SHUTTLE 1981-2011 magazine. From page 84… “Maneuvering in orbit was governed by the reaction control system, which consisted of 44 thrusters on the nose and tail. Pitch, roll, and yaw were controlled by firing certain thrusters. Charlie Precourt, former chief of the astronaut corps, […]

I’ve been skimming the Spring 2011 AIR & SPACE COLLECTOR’S EDITION: SPACE SHUTTLE 1981-2011 magazine. What I’ve found most interesting so far has been astronaut Andy Allen’s brief description of what the space shuttle orbiter’s reaction control jets are like to someone inside the orbiter. From page 69 of the magazine… “…I did some pretty aggressive maneuvering using the […]