🚀 go-pugleaf

> ... If the engine failure
> occurs early on in the launch they perform a RTLS (Return To Launch
> Site) abort.  Maybe someone else can furnish the details of this abort
> all that I know is they jetison everything and land at the cape.

Nothing happens until after the SRBs depart (essentially no abort is
possible before then).  Then they quite literally turn the whole assembly
around and start decelerating.  When they are heading back to the Cape at
modest speed, they shut down main engines and jettison the tank.  They
then land at KSC.  Probably the single biggest weather consideration for
shuttle launches is whether the weather on the Cape is suitable for such
a landing.  (The Cape gets a lot of thunderstorms.  The shuttle is
nominally capable of a landing in essentially zero visibility, but nobody
wants to try it.)  As you might guess, this turn-around-and-decelerate
business is something the astronauts aren't too enthusiastic about.
-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly.    | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry