Reentry guidance is perfect for S/C 101 regardless of L/D

FA/Director of Flight OperationsAUG 25 196767-FM-T-64FM/Deputy ChiefReentry guidance is perfect for S/C 101 regardless of L/D

This memorandum is in response to your question regarding the reentry guidance with low L/D. It was erroneously reported to you in the August 3 MPAD Weekly Activity Report that, although the program could be modified easily to handle L/D as low as 0.2, it probably would not be implemented for Spacecraft 101. Actually, some consideration was given to not making any modification since without change the maximum miss distance was only 15 nm and that was only at the toe of the footprint. We felt that if changing the program would slip its delivery date it was not worth doing it. However, MIT was so anxious to make the change they finally agreed it could be done with no schedule impact and were directed to do so. Actually, the only change that was necessary was to make it possible essen- tially to input our best estimate of L/D prior to entry.