Re: Re-entry: was FT: Carriers

If you want to get some feel for orbital maneuvering (and how blasted
difficult it can be) download the freeware simulator "Orbiter" from:

http://www.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/~martins/orbit/orbit.html

The physics are totally real; most of the vehicles are futuristic SSTOs,
but the newest version includes the Shuttle. There's also a heap of 3rd
party add-on craft.

I mess around with it, but I don't have the math to get serious. It's
still a very cool simulator. (and free, too!)

The manual & tutorial are very good, and will give you some idea of
orbital math even if you're as innumerate as I am...

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -