Space Shuttle problem - Hold Alt.

[TriCityManiac]

Hi,

well, this sim is great and i got easily into most of the things, but one thing irritates me ... when i press the Hold ALt Button, the shuttle always "falls down" ... i thought, that this button means, that the spacecraft is holding the actual altitude ...

Cu

Tom

 

[MJR]

When you are in orbit with the space shuttle it is nothing like a plane. Zero gravity takes over and is control of your orbitital path.

 

[SiameseCat]

HoldAlt uses hover thrusters to kill descent rate and is usually needed only for vertical landings. The shuttle doesn't have hover thrusters, so there's no way to use HoldAlt.

 

[TriCityManiac]

Thanks for your answer guys ... well, there is mission, where the shuttle is unloading the hubble and there the shuttle is always holding the same alt ... but when i wanna do this, the shuttle is always losing the height ...

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Ok, describe exactly how you're trying this. Are you launching from Earth? Already on-orbit? what?

 

[MJR]

Make your orbit as low as possible in eccentricity and then that problem of yours will become a lesser problem.

 

[insane_alien]

there's always going to be some altitude variation in your orbit. if tis only a kilometer or two you're in a pretty good circular orbit. if its dipping into the atmosphere when you don't want it to then you need a bit of tweaking from the OMS engines.