Rendezvous pitch maneuver
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The R-bar pitch maneuver, popularly called the rendezvous pitch maneuver or backflip, was a maneuver performed by the Space Shuttle as it rendezvoused with the International Space Station prior to doc
The Space Shuttle Discovery performing the rendezvous pitch maneuver during STS-114.
Underside view of Atlantis during STS-117, as it approached the International Space Station and performed a rendezvous pitch maneuver.
On February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the second of two Space Shuttle missio
Rendezvous pitch maneuver
…was a standard procedure recommended by CAIB for all space shuttles docking to the International Space Station after a damaged heat shield caused the Columbia disaster. The name of the maneuver was based on the R-bar and V-bar lines that are used in the approach of the space station. R-bar or Earth radius vector is…
Columbia prior to launch. The circled area on the external tank (ET) is the left bipod foam ramp, and the circled area on the orbiter is the location that was damaged.
Close-up of the left bipod foam ramp that broke off and damaged the orbiter wing
The crew of STS-107. From left to right: Brown, Husband, Clark, Chawla, Anderson, McCool, Ramon.
STS-107 crew posing for a group photo in space