Study of automatic and manual terminal guidance and control systems for space shuttle vehicles. Volume 1: Sections 1 through 3

The results of a study to analyze, design, and evaluate guidance and control systems are presented that start at an altitude of about 100,000 feet and bring the unpowered space shuttle orbiters to a precision horizontal landing. The systems under consideration included fully automatic versions which involve no pilot participation as well as various manual configurations that provide combinations of displays and control augmentation which permit the pilot to control the vehicle to a successful landing. Two classes of vehicles were studied: the low cross range or straight-wing orbiter and the high cross range or delta-wing (delta body) orbiter. The recommended navigation, guidance and control system is shown to be compatible with realistic physical constraints that would exist in space shuttlecraft and to be consistent with the 1971 avionics equipment state of the art. Aircraft capable of aerodynamically simulating the various candidate space shuttlecraft in their unpowered, terminal area descent were investigated, and flight test recommendations, including system mechanizations, are made.