He Glass Cockpit

THIS is the space shuttle cockpit, located on the flight deck. It is the main control area of the spacecraft. In this picture, the seats have been removed. Two spaces for seats face the orbiter’s front windows. The mission commander sits on the left and the pilot on the right. Either one can control the craft from his seat. Flying the shuttle requires a vast array ol instruments. Over 2,100 different controls line the cockpit. I he new shuttle cockpit has more computer screens, and so it is called the “glass cockpit.”

The flight deck and rest ol the crew cabin are pressurized so the crew do not need space suits once in orbit. They float around in weightlessness, often called "zero G,” inside the cabin, from the flight deck, the crew can control other parts ol the spacecraft. They can open and close the payload, or cargo, bay doors. They can move the shuttle’s big robot arm to grasp and retrieve objects such as communications satellites in space. The shuttle’s movements can be I controlled manually by the crew and also

by Mission Control in Houston.

In Command

Mission commander Dominic LGone sits at the controls of the shuttle Endeavour during a 1999 mission. The pilot’s seat is on his right. The shuttle can also be controlled by a sophisticated autopilot that can react thousands of times faster than a human.