Simulation of Space Shuttle – STS 62 A Polar Express high altitude journey

I still can't comprehend how the scientists and engineers managed to launch STS 1 (test flight) with two astronauts in 1981 - without doing a prior test launch with no astronauts inside (like SpaceX).. Absolutely incredible. I don't know what it is about the Shuttle, but the aesthetics are just really nice. The safety, of course, is a different question, but it still has a special place in my heart.

This reminds me an old video by Scott Manley of an abort procedure of the Space Shuttle that never was tried in real life. (He used a model in the Kerbal Space Program.) &quot;<i>Space Shuttle RTLS Abort Challenge - Without The Manual</i>&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Iwn3kk-q1YU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Iwn3kk-q1YU</a>

Brining Comic Book Guy level of pedanticism, the thing that stood out the most for me was that the space shuttle in the sim had a glass cockpit with full colour displays.<p>The shuttle cockpit upgrades didn’t take place until late-1990s&#x2F;early-2000s, and before then, it was just green text on CRTs.<p>Regardless, it’s amazing to see what people can achieve with enough interest and time.

Reminded me of this.. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;_q2i0eu35aY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;_q2i0eu35aY</a><p>&quot; The Space Shuttle was a vehicle designed to do many things, and in a deal with the US Military it was redesigned to make it able to perform a very specific secret mission. The redesign radically changed the Shuttle from the early concepts to the actual design which we saw fly, but, before the shuttle even flew the secret mission had been abandoned.<p>&quot;

Sidenote: IMO these STS space suits were far better looking than the oompa loompa version that SpaceX has devised. In the name of minimalism, they&#x27;ve created something that looks like a bad hollywood low-budget scifi film (including the purely decorative bridge to the space capsule and the touch screen cockpit). It&#x27;s personal opinion&#x2F;taste but I can&#x27;t help but look at how beautiful and professional it was back in the day. Also, traveling to the SpaceX rocket in Tesla Model X is one of the tackiest things I&#x27;ve seen.

Flightgear has so much potential... I really would like to see its development advancing faster and become more popular among flight-simmers.

I haven&#x27;t seriously looked into it, but won&#x27;t Orbiter be better than FlightGear for trying this?