Top Gun Pilot Lands Space Shuttle

Astronaut Scott Altman ('Scooter') commanded STS-125 to service the Hubble Space Telescope, no doubt his experience flying fighter jets helped make this landing.
Before he was an astronaut he was a naval aviator, flying F-14's and he specifically flew many aerial stunts for the movie Top Gun.

This is a montage of multiple cameras, the shuttle view through the HUD and internal communications between the crew on the flight deck during this critical phase of flight.

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[Chasedtuna]

"For a brick, he flew pretty good!"

[edbaiza]

What some people dont understand is, this shuttle has no engines just thrusters for launch lift off and for re-entering from orbit.
This shuttle has to glide to its landing area starting 300 miles away to have a perfect landing with no engines.
There is no room for mistakes at overshooting your landing because it will crash.

[NotSure]

Flying that steep towards the ground at 300 knots is no joke.

[mrdaym]

I'm amazed by people like this. You got one shot and you know you're good enough to make it. No second guessing yourself, you are the best.

[bungendores_finest]

Let’s just appreciate the amazing and constant communication between flight and tower. Insane work!

[Variety_Pack]

That whole landing sequence is insane. For anyone not familiar with airplanes, even just bringing the nose down at the end can wreck the craft. He has to hit a bunch of milestones perfectly, with no retry options.

[jdotdeedot]

I still remember when it landed at Edwards. I was at my grandparents home in Fullerton, CA about 100 miles away and the sonic boom when it entered the atmosphere shook the entire house. Such a cool day.

[orionbarnes]

Not only does it look like a penguin, it's also known for flying with similar grace and elegance.

[devinjanosov]

How they went from the concept of “Hey, I know, we can design it with a delta wing, no fuel, no thrusters, minimal control surfaces; and when it re-enters, everything has to go 1000% to plan (from re-entry point, to drag, to speed, to rate of descent, etc.) until it just gracefully glides to a stop 300 miles away on the runway.” Which, under normal circumstances would have drawn responses like “are you out of your F*CKING MIND?”

To: “yeah, that’s EXACTLY how we have successfully landed it every time.”

Amazing.

[williamsteele]

That HUD is the epitome of simplicity... no human factors issues... no irrelevant information... nothing but exactly what the pilot needs to know at the time he needs to know it.

[kandaman]

Every time I watch The Space Shuttle land, it sends me Chills. What a marvelous piece of machinery!!!

[z_HUNGARY]

Let's talk about how freaking fast the landing gear covers opened. Impressive engineering.

[thomasbell]

I'm an old aviation/space writer from Houston and covered a number of Shuttle missions, including Challenger's final launch. For anyone trained to fly an airplane, watching the Shuttle make its approach causes involuntary butt clinching. That sucker arrives like a set of car keys tossed onto a table, and the first try must be perfect every time.

[matthendricks]

The skill needed for such a landing cannot be overrated. This is the peak of aviation-skills.

[Cleric]

Holy cow, from the the extreme nose-down attitude and speed at low altitude, to the extreme AOA, to the deep nose-down de-rotation...now that I know more about aviation than I did watching these as a kid, it's only gotten more spectacular.

[yumenokoyume]

I still couldn't believe how that large plane is just gliding in the air. Really amazing

[AdrianColley]

Bret has a great video "How to land the space shuttle from space". It's not just informative and entertaining, it's an excellent example of how to make a talk-with-slides informative and entertaining.

[roundsrapid]

I met Captain Altman at a hotel bar once. Very nice, polite and humble man. We have the same birthday!

[ianzander]

Beautiful. Landings don't get any better than this.

[imsteph]

I miss the space shuttle program so much. We took a MASSIVE hit here on the space coast when it got shut down. Our little economy went to hell in a handbasket. BUT being able to watch the launches from the front yard, feeling the entire house rumble and hearing all the animals going crazy lol I'll never get sick of it. Especially night launches. They are so insanely beautiful.