Thread: If you are easily confused becoming an astronaut might not be a good career choice..

A 360 degree view of the cockpit of the space shuttle Discovery.

I consider myself a reasonably bright guy but......no way.

Doesn't that genius "Houston" tell them which button to push when? He's the real mastermind.

The joystick on the left flies the shuttle. The rest of it is the gaming system.

Reminds me of the movie 'Airplane'. - "that's odd"

If you have ever seen the flight deck of an older commercial aircraft like a Boeing 377 it would make that look simple.

Space shuttles are a bit like camels. When you want them to go you hit them with a stick and yell "huthuthut!".

When you want them to stop you hit them harder and yell "huthuthut!"

Dead simple really, all the buttons are there for show so the investors think their money has been well spent.

You guys... The technology is fairly basic. Joystick - check. Rudders, check. Fire extinguisher, check.

The rest of the buttons control the disco lights in the International Space Station.

James.

Looks a bit like a bridge of a ship. Just stuffed in a smaller space. I'm not the one who claims it simple but as someone who works at the ship and after watching so many years navigators using their magic buttons i'm sure that controlling this thing isn't a rocket science.

I used to think the reactor control panel on a US nuclear submarine was complicated, not so much anymore.

With all that stuff in there, where did they put the wet bar?

That's controlled by the joystick on the back wall.

Hoestly it doesn't look any moire complicated than, say, Elvis. Could I fly it now? Hell no! Does it look unlearnable? Not a bit.