According to the Nasa website, Jim Kelly was the pilot of <i>Discovery</i> on the latest space mission.
Could anyone else on this mission have piloted the shuttle if something had happened to Kelly? If not…what would they have done?
Thanks!
His superior, Mission Commander Eileen Collins, had piloted the shuttle on a previous mission.. IIRC, both the Mission Commander and the Pilot are always trained to land the shuttle.
The Commander/Pilot relationship on the shuttle is similar to the pilot/co-pilot relationship on aircraft although the pilot is the less senior of the two on the shuttle. Both the shuttle Commander and Pilot are trained to operate and land the shuttle.
Thank you Shagnasty. I realize that many questions are answerable on the 'net, and I tried searching, but I wouldn’t have found all this on my own.