How was flight planning done with FDS II?
FDS was a CAD system designed to be operated by a team of technicians who did not understand the software required. They used Tektronix 4014 analog graphics terminals, connected to a Perkin-Elmer minicomputer. The design process was a collaborative online process of sequencing planning steps with a high-order job-control language, where each step was a trajectory/orbital flight segment simulation program. Each simulation segment was fed by the one preceding it and generated graphics output to the terminals, usually showing views of a simulated camera relative to a position within or external to the shuttle. Typically this could be a view of the earth, a star field, an upper-stage orbital transfer vehicle being launched from the payload bay, or a picture of the Shuttle itself and its background from a relative point in space.
