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Depending on the selected camera, you can pan, zoom, and move using one-, two-, or three-finger swipe gestures.
Not yet. But it’s on the to-do list, so there’s a chance that it will be part of a future update (no promises though).
Like in the real orbiter, the speedbrakes are normally controlled by the autopilot. You can control them manually by switching the autopilot speedbrake channel to off in the autopilot menu (in flight, pause the game and go to the settings menu).
No. F-SIM currently only simulates the subsonic part of the descent. This is where the commander usually takes control of the orbiter and flies it manually down to the runway. In the hyper-, super- and transsonic regimes the orbiter is controlled by its digital autopilot.
The shuttles always launch from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida and always head towards the Atlantic (i.e. east). Because once in orbit it can't do plane changes this also means that when landing it will always approach from the west. If you try to approach Edwards from the east, the "impossible reentry trajectory" info is displayed.
See above. There is an abort mode where the orbiter would turn around after the solids have separated and return to the launch site, thus come in from the Atlantic, heading back to Florida.
The speed shown in the HUD is in knots equivalent airspeed. It is the airspeed at sea level which represents the same dynamic pressure as that flying at the true airspeed at altitude. So at high altitude, due to the lower air density, euqivalent airspeed is much lower than the true airspeed. When you start at e.g. 50,000ft, the true airspeed is more than twice the equivalent airspeed, i.e. almost Mach 1.