Teacher in space

[WaReAgLe83 0]

Christa McAuliffe's backup for the Challenger mission in 1986 was sent into space on Endeavor yesterday.

'Class is in session'

What a great story! Let's hope the crew makes it home safely, too.

[CCTAU 3,821]

When I first heard this story, I thought, how old must that gal be by now. 21 years is a LOOOONNNNNGGGG time to wait to go into space. I would imagine that after they had her trained, they figured it would be cheaper to keep her on than to train another astronaut. 55 is pretty ripe for pulling all those G's. I think she just entered the "Space Cowboy" club.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

The G's sustained during space flight are "eyes out-eyes in" G's. The type sustained by fighter pilots typically are "head down" G's which are much more harsh on the body. A trained pilot can take about 9 G's sustained if they are applied head down. A typical person should be able to take 9 G's easy eyes in for a little while. Plus the shuttle only accelerates at around 5-6 G's. Child's play

While working on an Air Force program we had a test pilot begin to "porpoise". Before he regained control we measured his G level at +10.5 to -13. It happened so fast that there was no damage to the pilot other than a few burst blood vessels in an eye, but the plane had to be grounded.

[CCTAU 3,821]

The G's sustained during space flight are "eyes out-eyes in" G's. The type sustained by fighter pilots typically are "head down" G's which are much more harsh on the body. A trained pilot can take about 9 G's sustained if they are applied head down. A typical person should be able to take 9 G's easy eyes in for a little while. Plus the shuttle only accelerates at around 5-6 G's. Child's play

While working on an Air Force program we had a test pilot begin to "porpoise". Before he regained control we measured his G level at +10.5 to -13. It happened so fast that there was no damage to the pilot other than a few burst blood vessels in an eye, but the plane had to be grounded.

Not a whole lot of 55 yr. old test pilots. I would do it if they asked me, at any age. But that's because I'm not bright like that.

[AU_tiger_2000 0]

The G's sustained during space flight are "eyes out-eyes in" G's. The type sustained by fighter pilots typically are "head down" G's which are much more harsh on the body. A trained pilot can take about 9 G's sustained if they are applied head down. A typical person should be able to take 9 G's easy eyes in for a little while. Plus the shuttle only accelerates at around 5-6 G's. Child's play

While working on an Air Force program we had a test pilot begin to "porpoise". Before he regained control we measured his G level at +10.5 to -13. It happened so fast that there was no damage to the pilot other than a few burst blood vessels in an eye, but the plane had to be grounded.

Not a whole lot of 55 yr. old test pilots. I would do it if they asked me, at any age. But that's because I'm not bright like that.

The Air Force test pilots were younger. The one's who worked for Lockheed were in their mid 40's to early 50's. You don't want some yahoo who thinks he is invincible taking your $150 million airplane up for the first time.