12 Space Shuttle Missions that Weren't - By James Oberg

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/s...ns-that-werent

Many of these have been discussed here ad infinitum, but there are a couple of
gems:

Cruising Home: Plan to transport shuttle via aircraft carrier...

Hands-Off Landing: Autopilot all the way to runway, but someone in cockpit had
to lower wheels [and presumably apply the brakes!]

Suicide Space Dive: Bringing down a damaged shuttle "the easy way"....

and finally my favorite:

Fire Maidens in Orbit: It was possible in 1998 to juggle the crew manifest to
put an all female crew on the shuttle. [Easy there Pat...] Presumably tho'
given the training regime and close quarters it would have required the launch
window to preclude certain times of the month...

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...to-synchronize

;-)

Dave