Will update as I fly the mission/feel like it . Flown with Space Shuttle Mission Sim 2007.

April 24 1990. Discovery sits on 39B shortly after first light. The Hubble Space Telescope rests in her payload bay awaiting its flight into orbit.


T -41. Commander transfers the flight software into the backup flight computer with the ITEM 25 EXEC command. Note the HYD PRESS caution light is on because the APUs haven't been started yet.


Cockpit valves are closed and we are all buttoned up and thrilled to know there are no leaks.


OPS101, the software that will control the beginning of our ascent, is loaded into the flight computers.


Flight deck view from center mission specialist.


T -15. Abort advisory light check.


Hooking up the fuel cells.


Event timer set. Just under nine minutes until we light the fuse.


Crew access arm retracts.


View from the pilot's seat. Three APUs look good, hydraulics nominal. T -4:54.


To be continued...

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Impressive looking sim, nice pix!

Didn't know there was a shuttle sim. Very nice pics

This sim seems to be a well kept secret. It's hardcore enough to please that crowd, and scalable enough to please the sim lite crowd. I can't believe it has such a small audience. For a NASA nut like me, it's well worth the $50. I hope they release the most recent shuttle mission, STS-126 soon.

Anyways, on with the show. Let me know if I'm breaking the rules by posting too many images at once.

Main engine start a little over T -5 seconds.


We really start shaking at T -0. SRB ignition.


"Roll program, Houston!"


View from someone watching on the ground.


"Go at throttle down." Mach 1.18 at 24,000 feet.


"Go at throttle up." Now we really start hauling as the engines throttle up to 104% and we zip through the thinner upper atmosphere.


Discovery leaving the Cape behind.


"Pc less than 50," as indicated on the OPS CRT displays (only the newer glass cockpit is modeled). The low pressure in the SRBs indicates they will burn out shortly.


"SRB sep, Houston."


The twin SRB's plunge back down to the ocean below us.


"Discovery, Houston. Negative return." If we have to abort now it will be a TAL abort to Zaragosa, Spain.


Going for velocity rather than altitude now to get us into orbit.


"Prepare for MECO." Main engine cutout in seven seconds. You can see the three main engines throttling down to keep us within our 3G structural limit.


"MECO on schedule." We come out of our seats a little as we transition to weightlessness.


A few seconds later, the ET is blow off with a WHUMP and our RCS jets fire to ensure separation from the external tank.


The computers fire our RCS jets to bring us into the proper attitude for our OMS circ burn coming up in some forty minutes at orbital apoapsis. Because of the high altitude of the Hubble telescope (relative to other shuttle missions, I believe Hubble missions are still the highest the shuttle goes) it will be a relatively long five minute burn. We also perform post ascent housekeeping procedures: venting unused MPS propellant, activating various heaters, shutting down the APUs, etc.


More later this weekend, seeing as we're snowed/iced in.

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And to watch it in real life...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwfsFtpACFw

The flight deck looks a lot different because these are the old steam gauges.

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Awesome stuff! Been thinking about this getting this sim, a bit put off by the low-res Earth textures as compared to Orbiter, but it seems much more user (particularly noob) friendly. So, when is the next installment?

Either tomorrow or the next day. I've been playing the mission (though not as much as I though I would be this weekend), getting the housekeeping procedures/switch flipping out of the way. I'll start snapping shots again when I get to Canadarm ops.

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Sorry it took so long to get back to this, was pretty busy over the holidays and started a new job right after that.

Discovery about to begin RMS ops. Somewhere over Africa.


Looking out the back port window of the orbiter at Hubble. The RMS controls are below the window, and you can see the RMS arm to the right. It hasn't been deployed yet.


Deploying the RMS arm.


Setting up the camera and flood lights.


When the arm is first deployed, a REACH LIM alert is generated. This means I have to manually move the arm one limb at a time back into the soft stop limits. This can also happen when you are trying to grapple something and move the Canadarm to its limits, but this Hubble grapple should be relatively easy and I don't anticipate that.


Starting to move the arm. I'm going to put the end effector roughly over the center of the payload bay, move the end effector to the proper angle, and then use the EE camera to guide it to the port Hubble grapple target.


A great view of the earth when I look up in the middle of maneuvering the Canadarm.


A view from the EE camera as I move the arm into position.


And off the west coast of Australia, "RMS capture, Houston!" On my first try too.


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simply awesome! more more !

Wow. First I've heard of this.

So how do you actually fly the shuttle? Joystick? Looks like a button pushers dream, is the cockpit clickable?

Love to see a reentry and landing!