Deorbiting in STS 26 mission?

[Stannny]

Hello everyone,

I would appreciate it alot if anybody gives me a clue how to deorbit and land when shuttle orbit trajectory misses U.S. and accordingly the Edwards AFB.

I mean during the procedure of deorbitting the Discovery already flies into Pacific towards Africa.

[thammond]

Hi Stanny,

I'll give a shot at helping you, but will need more info to do so.

You mentioned that the orbit trajectory misses the US.  Is this observation during orbital operations or during deorbit operations?  By missing do you mean it goes north (Canada), south (Central/South America), short (Pacific ocean) or something else?

Regarding "flies into Pacific towards Africa".  Can you give some more details regarding this.  Its been a while since I ran a sim (someone correct me if necessary), but as a recall deorbit procedures typically start while your ground track is over Africa and the deorbit burn occurs over Australia.  But it should be similar to the deorbit you did in STS-1.  Did you find something different?

[Stannny]

Thanks Thammond,

I have aready completed the STS-26 Discovery mission and got a badge for it. What I have learned, if the apogee is high enough (over 160 NM) you can deorbit from nearly anywhere in the world, no matter where your landing strip is located. You gradually lower the altitude first, coupled with 25 Mach speed it decreases the distance dramatically, after that RMS make final direction adjustments, S maneuvering and you proceed to re-entry.

Thank you for your advice.