Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by naggreg 2209 days ago
I find it sort of weird to not have buttons in there: with all the vibrations you would think it's rather difficult to touch the exact control that you want. I guess they considered that...
3 comments

The exact same thing applies to buttons, its just harder to screw up. they also have buttons just fine

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/04/03/photos-astronauts-trai...

I don't think the astronauts make extensive manual corrections during takeoff. And if you watch the livestream, the UI elements are much larger on the screen than would be possible with physical buttons. So if you are worried about precision, the touch screens would actually be safer.
I think the astronauts have very little to actually control. There are a variety of buttons underneath the screens, a big red one being for abort.