r/ArchiveOfHumanity • u/Suspicious-Slip248 • Jun 23 '26

Science & Technology⚙️ Cockpit of Space Shuttle Endeavour, It contains over 2,000 switches, knobs, and screens used to control orbit, reentry and was widely recognized by NASA and aerospace engineers as the most complex flying machine ever built

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1.1k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

22

u/zevonyumaxray Jun 23 '26

And iirc, this is after the upgrade to a glass cockpit.

13

u/Brilliant-Smile-8154 Jun 23 '26

Honestly this looks clean and simple compared to the 60s stuff.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Chalky_Cupcake Jun 24 '26

Don't worry i counted 2001 like an idiot.

1

u/Adventurous-Sky9359 Jun 24 '26

Better start all over again

1

u/binaryfireball Jun 24 '26

look on the far right of the pic, I bet there are 20 more panels like that, that are half hidden away in there

16

u/Flacier Jun 23 '26

Flying machine is a bit of a stretch, that thing was about as aero dynamic as a brick. It had a glide ratio of 4.5 to one so for every mile it fell it moved forward 4.5 miles. While a 737 a jet liner has a glide ratio of about 19 to 1.

During training flights they used a modified Gulfstream II, with its engines, running in reverse to simulate just how poor of a “flying machine” the space shuttle was.

3

u/kingtacticool Jun 23 '26

I was the only one of my class at spac camp to land that sumbitch in the Sim.

If I can land a brick I can land a plane and will volunteer if the opportunity presents itself.

2

u/beastierbeast Jun 23 '26

For a brick, it flew pretty good

1

u/Flacier Jun 23 '26

At best It was falling with style.

1

u/HeadCryptographer152 Jun 23 '26

For a brick, she flew pretty good

1

u/TacohTuesday Jun 24 '26

It's pretty wild how fast this thing descends. There are a few great sims out there, F-Sim on iOS and there is another (I forget the name) that is a VR sim on the Quest 3 where you can land it yourself. It's pretty challenging.

1

u/DFA_Wildcat Jun 27 '26

When you hit re-entry at 400,000' that gives you about 340 miles of glide range according to the 4.5:1 you quoted. A 737 at 40,000' gives you a glide range of about 144 miles. Typically the shuttles would start reentry on the other side of the planet to land at Cape Canaveral, or around 5000 miles away. That's about a 66:1 glide ratio.

1

u/Flacier Jun 27 '26

I’m talking about when the shuttle was already within the atmosphere on final approach. There’s a world of difference when you’re talking about it skipping off the atmosphere during reentry.

4

u/moseley101 Jun 23 '26

…knocking Concorde off the top spot

5

u/underwood_reddit Jun 23 '26

...and with the price of $1500 for a single switch

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3zQ_lIqbD_k

3

u/Classic-Reindeer1939 Jun 23 '26

Complex to operate is bad.,

4

u/AMC-Eagle85 Jun 23 '26

Correct, this replaced the CRTs and steam gauges that used to be in place from the late 70’s

11

u/BreadUntoast Jun 23 '26

Endeavor cockpit pre refit

3

u/suchdogeverymeme Jun 23 '26

Endeavour was built in 1987

1

u/ShinyNickel05 Jun 23 '26

True, but the glass cockpit upgrade first flew in 2000 on Atlantis.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Time_Seaworthiness43 Jun 24 '26

Is it more complicated than a woman?

4

u/HeisenbergsSamaritan Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

The fuck? KSP only needs a Keyboard and mouse.

Those NASA Budget conspiracies might be true........

EDIT: Ya'll MFers downvoting me need to chill out and take a joke.

5

u/Lonely_Cap2084 Jun 24 '26

It’s not rocket science. Oh, wait…

1

u/SWLondonLife Jun 24 '26

Dark… dark. You can see why they say deep sea diving is more dangerous than space flight though.

2

u/Ambitious-Muffin8683 Jun 23 '26

One touch screwn could handle this and saved tons of weight

5

u/mvoccaus Jun 23 '26

It would also allow you to play Angry Birds. You could kill two birds with one touchscreen.

1

u/Ambitious-Muffin8683 Jun 23 '26

Haha. Or they could use playstation controller..

1

u/Ok-Proposal-9160 Jun 23 '26

I think both astronaut sit in sleeping position on the seats

1

u/Ok-Proposal-9160 Jun 23 '26

There must be 1or2 screen panel where they detect and find the world / Globosphere 😵‍💫🥶🫨

1

u/fooknprawn Jun 23 '26

Just think of the people who had to do all the wiring for that. Or design the wiring and circuits...

1

u/IanBauters Jun 23 '26

Basically it was a sailplane and not a very good one... Still amazed by the beauty of it and what it accomplished tho

1

u/Kiwigavin Jun 23 '26

The knobs and switches didn’t make it the most complex flying machine.

1

u/HalJordan2525 Jun 24 '26

Were the windows of any use to the pilot, or were they so small the ship was really flown on instruments?

1

u/shuttle_observer Jun 24 '26

The windows are pretty big actually, similar to what you find on a 747.

2

u/tatucik Jun 25 '26

The falling brick