On 2006-05-30 15:02, Jay Honeck wrote:
Not that I'm too savvy about this, but what I recall the Columbia shuttle
burned on reentry, and at that stage the shuttle would be mainly a glider
with very little onboard fuel?


I believe Big John's SR-71 question was referring to the Challenger
explosion -- not the Columbia re-entry break-up.


Oh, sorry, mea culpa; I read too much into the SR-71 issue; I was
trying to make a sensible connection to the SR-71 question, and when
such a craft might have been used close to the shuttle.

I can't imagine NASA would put one anywhere near a launch site, since
it's not very manouverable, and AFAIK they have other craft for launch
photography. (Noone else uses SR71:s nowadays, if at all, but back in
-86 it was still in use by the USAF; but they would surely have stayed
far away too.)

IMO, it could perhaps have been useful for watching a shuttle during the
descent, since that is pretty straight until the breaking turns.

But as stated before, the lost SR-71 is probably an urban legend.

/Rolf