| Nothing official from NASA, but Aviation Week (Nov 11, 1985) said that the
steering performance was satisfactory and no brake or tire damage was noted
in preliminary main gear inspections. AW&ST also went on to explain that
the steering fix tested on the recent Challenger mission is not the final
solution to the shuttle steering problem. It, in addition with other redundant
steering capabilities, will provide a fail-safe cross wind landing capability
until a permanent ECO is introduced in the future.
Glenn
|
| AW&ST has now reported more on the steering test. The shuttle was purposefully
steered "20-30 feet" off the centerline of the runway, then steered back on;
all this during the roll-out after the last landing. Apparently this test went
well. While the vehicle was being towed to the mate/demate facility (where
the shuttle is placed on-board its 747 ferry plane), however, it dug in to a
few dust holes on the desert floor at Edwards, and may have suffered some
minor landing gear damage during the attempts to unstick it.
NASA is examining the nosewheel steering system for future modification
primarily because the system itself was designed as a backup to differential-
braking steering, and there is insufficient redundancy in the system to
consider it the primary steering system at this time. After several 'single-
point of failure' problems are resolved it will probably become the primary
steering system, especially for landings at the Cape on the one runway
available. Incidently, the T38 trainers used by the astronauts also use
differential-braking for steering.
|