The Space Shuttle: NASA's Astronaut Pod
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Clarification @ 5:13: Morton Thiokol was responsible for the two solid-rocket boosters. Martin Marietta was responsible for the external tank.
the POOP DECK LUL
Please make a video about Bar Lev Line, costing around $300 million in 1973.
5 days ago???
@@spritemon98 I don't know how, but every sponsor comment they put, is way older than the video 😂
you should do a mega/side project on that "crawler transport" who designed/built that colossus? its insane.
Thad be cool to hear about
Doesn’t he have a video on that on one of his other channels already ?
@@live4in2the0moment I'm pretty sure he does
Since he just did one about the space shuttle maybe he can do a sideprojects about it. I'd definitely watch it
I've never seen one on the crawler, I've only heard of it from people who worked at NASA. That would be awesome to see a megaprojects on it.
Saw one of these launch in ~2002 at the Cape when I was 14. Awe inspiring....helped me find my calling in manufacturing. I am proud to say I have made things that are on the ISS (and managed to hide my initials on each and every part too).
Sweet
Can you give us some examples of what you built, without incriminating yourself? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to know!
Most of what I make are aluminum components that are related to electrical connectors (mostly tooling to make the connectors that are used world wide by aerospace/military giants - think a VGA connector but with 128 pins instead of 15) and the containers they use to ship them to the space station. Nothing "top secret" but I do have ITAR agreements with my customers so that's probably as detailed as I will get.
@@ndlsjk Fantastic! I'm proud/jealous of you lol. Aerospace engineering was my first love but I somehow fell into software development and just never quit. It must be so fulfilling to produce something tangible, and on aero/space hardware too! All my best buddy.
Legend
Watching these launch from across Florida at school was a highlight of my childhood. They’d empty every classroom and take us to the PE field and we’d watch in awe as the space shuttle went into space. While I never got to see a launch up close, I did get to see Atlantis last year at KSC and bawled my eyes out. She is so beautiful in person! I also have the space shuttle license plate on my car and both the Challenger and Columbia patches as bumper stickers on either side. I also have the patches as pins on my work vest, so you could say I’m a fan. 🚀
glad im not the only shuttle nerd who cried when i saw one upclose- got to see discovery a few years back and my mom had to force me out of the exhibit after an hour of silent gawking =p
My family and I drove down to Florida for the last three Space Shuttle launches to see them in person. I used to go see the Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Udvar Hazy museum frequently. Then Discovery moved in and the exhibit looks quite similar, astonishingly enough :) but it was always interesting to go there and see the kids (not that much younger than I was the last time I was there) marvel and gawk at it because it is waaaay bigger than most people think it is. Still not quite as impressive as both Saturn V's, somehow.
Same here. Florida and shuttles go together like PB&J. Go Ron!
My dad used to wake me up early to watch the space shuttle launches. Not my brothers, though, so it was just me and him. One of my favourite memories.
RIP Kalpana Chawla on board Space Shuttle Columbia and University of Texas at Arlington alumni, my college. There’s a permanent memorial for her in the engineering building and a residence hall bearing her name.
"You could call it the poop deck, but this is a serious channel, so I won't... But I already did..."
I love how Simon's Business Blaze mannerisms are slowly leaking into his other channels.
_Allegedly!_
A poop deck was a real thing during the age of sail. It was the deck that was above the captains cabin in the stern of the ship i.e. Where the great big steering wheel connected to the rudder was mounted
I'd love to a see a Mega Projects video on the Harrier Jump Jet
Coming soon.
I remember a guy came on science day at school and he had one of the Thermal protection tiles and put it in a furnace and was able to pick the tile up with his bare hands. It was glowing red hot and it was still cool to the touch.
That's the thing about both Shuttle accidents: they both seemed pretty preventable. As Simon said, NASA was aware of the foam issue with Columbia, they just never fixed it, presumably because they didn't think it was that much of a risk (one of the more harrowing things about Columbia is the reports that came out afterwards that NASA knew the vessel had been compromised during takeoff but since nothing could really be done to fix it, they chose not to tell the astronauts or the public). As for Challenger, the O rings failing is one thing, both the primary and secondary failing is just horrible luck, but they should never have been trying to take off while it was that cold. I say all this just to put into perspective the idea that the idea that while the shuttle program was costly, it was immensely successful. The only problems with it were caused by human error.
Most accidents are preventable when viewed with hindsight.
I have always struggled to understand why people ever thought we would colonise space without tragedy. I wouldn’t hesitate to accept a flight on the STS were it to fly again. Some endeavours are worth that level of risk and more.
Grew up on the "Same" street all this was made on! My math class was across the street! I learned to drive Stick shift, mini bikes, motor cycles, cars in the parking lot, running from security who "really" did not want to catch us. Sat "in" a burnt from re entry, Gemini and Apollo capsule on this property! Got my hair cut from the same barber on the same street as the astronauts, with astronauts! My brother had his Eagle Scout ceremony with two astronauts giving speeches, but I was to young to remember their names!
This IS REAL History for me, I WAS THERE!
simonnnn we neeeeed a perseverance episode
That would be awesome
100% co-sign this. Would be brilliant
Perseverance rover yasssssssss or atleast the twin Voyager spacecraft
Coming soon :)
I was at Arlington National Cemetery and happened to be following behind a group of Russian tourists. The Cold War was barely over. They were polite and interested but when the tour came to the memorial for the Challenger with it's vivid bronze faces so real....some of them began crying. I then realized that they too were a space-faring nation with their share of grief and failures. It was the one thing that seemed to really bond our two countries - space and all it's tragic risk.
The story that gets to me is the Soviet Union stopping all radio broadcasts of any kind on the frequency bands NASA used to communicate with the Apollo spacecraft while Apollo 13 neared Earth and during and after reentry.
Yes, I know better. Was a student of a professor whose advisor was Dr. Strunk of Strunk and White.
I've lived in Florida since my parents and I moved here in 1989 when I was was 4 years old. My parents made it a point to visit the cape to see as many launches as we could whenever we could and whenever there was a launch. I was an adult by the time the last few launches occured and I went out there by muself a few times to see it. It is still to this day one of the most impressive, earth shaking things a person could ever experience. I miss those launches. You cant imagine the barrage on the senses that those launches hurl onto your senses. The way it sounds, the way it feels in the core of your bones and the whole earth feels like its shaking. Especially when you are seeing it sitting on the beach across the jeti just a few miles away from the pad. Its magic. It was just remarkable. And ive just always been able to deeply appreciate my proximity to the cape, one of the truly GOOD things about Florida. And its beyond great to see SpaceX taking over that torch and moving forward with the legacy that has been left on that stretch of land by the beach that has seen Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, The Space Shuttle, Delta rockets, Rovers, Satellites, Space Stations, Hubble, and now into Space X and Dragon; seen them all explore beyond the bounds of our planet into space and even beyond. And it deserves to continue. If you EVER have an opportunity to see a launch from anywhere, jump on it. You wont be disappointed. Its just one of the greatest most advanced things any group of humans has ever created and it will completely leave you in a sense of awe and wonder for what is possible.
Eyyy my old neighbor used to fly one of these, Capt. Frank L. Culbertson, Jr.
In case you're wondering, it's apparently (unsurprisingly, really) *far* easier to land the Shuttle at night than an F-4 on a carrier in broad daylight.
Also, in light of yesterday's landing, you should do a video on the Mars rovers.
I'm not surprised landing on a carrier is one of the hardest things for pilots to do.
With the f4 you land at full afterburner. If you miss the cable or don’t like the look of the landing, you can perform a go around. On the shuttle you are a glider so you get one shot.
@@paulmorrow8372 with the shuttle you have one of the longest runways in the world and no cable. And landing on a carrier is still hard, especially with afterburner on.
@@paulmorrow8372 yeah thats some backwards logic lmao. A carrier landing is in no way easy, even if you can just go back around if you miss. If you fubar it, like, at all your either dead in the water or dead on the deck. I can definitely see how landing a glider with parachutes and an airbrake on a giant paved runway would be easier
@@ethannorton564 also a land based runway doesn't move carriers move and in really bad whether they can move a lot if i am not mistaken in bad weather the deck can move a good few meters would be a bad day if your just about to touch down and the deck decides it gonna come to you.
Fun fact: The reason the external tank is different colors is that after the first two launches, Nasa decided to keep the tank unpainted, resulting in a reduction of weight by 66,000 pounds(almost 30,000 Kg for our overseas friends).
More fun fact. It is orange because it featured 250 kg of cork insulation. Yes cork is fantastic spaceflight material used to this day, sometimes even as an ablative heat shield.
Next, Kennedy Space Center itself!!!, including VAB, LCC, launch pads, O&C and SSPF
Big agree
JPL
Growing up around Cape Canaveral was a unique experience for sure. I can't tell you how many times as a kid I nearly shat myself hearing the 2 stupidly loud sonic booms that went off every time the shuttle landed here. Every time there was a shuttle launch tons of people would stop whatever they were doing and go outside and watch it. Even if it was something they had seen a hundred times. Watching the shuttle launch is something that I miss and definitely took for granted while I was growing up there but I'm glad I got to witness it as many times as I did.
Minor error at 5:17. Martin Marietta made the external fuel tank, not the SRBs. The tank was made at the Michaud Assembly Facility in New Orleans while the SRBs were made by Thiokol in Utah.
The test platform Enterprise was originally intended to be named "Constitution", but thanks to trekkies doing a big write-in campaign to have it named Enterprise, it was duly renamed, and in homage to the original name, the fictional Enterprise & its' siblings' design became the "Constitution Class" (Originally just called "Starship Class" as the bridge plaque stated in TOS)... :)
Wow, I had heard about the letter writing campaign, but I didn't know that the class of ship in star trek was then named after the 1st shuttle's original proposed name. That's so cool!
also, the TOS cast were present at it's launch. on an additional note, when star trek Enterprise (the tv show) started airing, it established the tradition of naming starships after the space shuttles(heh). first was Enterprise, the second was Columbia.... the show ended before more such ships could be rolled out, but the pattern was obvious to anyone who cared to look. a picture of the space shuttle Enterprise can also be found not only in Captain Archer's quarters, but in the show's opening credits as well
@@helenafarkas4534 There was also a U.S.S. Challenger in the Voyager episode "Timeless", which was a Galaxy Class ship, the same class as the Enterprise-D, and was of course captained by Geordi LaForge... :)
And as an aside, Dr. Mae Jemison, the first african-american astronaut, had a cameo in TNG as transporter operator Lt. Palmer in episode "Second Chances", becoming the first real astronaut to appear in Star Trek... :D
As for the artwork-based depictions of the shuttles, the first appearance of one was in the Recreation Deck in The Motion Picture as Decker was showing the V'ger probe version of Ilea how the "carbon units infesting Enterprise" functioned, depicting five vessels named Enterprise, the third being the OV-101, so Star Trek has kept ties with NASA for some time... :)
I'm a doe hard Trekkie!
I was in 4th grade when the Challenger exploded, watching it outside my classroom in Florida (I lived 45 minutes away from Kennedy). One thing I will never forget was that there was a double rainbow around the sun that morning, caused by ice crystals in the air due to how cold it was. I do wish that there had been a mention about the iconic twin sonic booms when the shuttle was in the process of landing. Those booms shook our whole house. I miss the shuttles but look forward to the future of space flight.
Sooooo.... No landing in a Los Angeles drainage ditch then. "The Core" LIED TO ME!
Hahahaha, I totally forgot about The Core.
I know how you feel. Once I was watching TV and saw a giant ape climb the Empire State Building and get shot down by surplus WWI aircraft. Imagine the disappointment when I discovered later that it didn't really happen.
For April fools day can regular Simon host Megaprojects, Bio and Geo as Business Blaze Simon?
Sounds funny
I think he has different outfits for most of them right?
hahaha great idea. he can have long intro and get off topic while drinking lots of coffee
Or the Simon from those early-ass TH-cam vids when he has one speed. Full-blown Click Bait presenter speed 😖
@@ApolloVIIIYouAreGoForTLI with no beard or glasses
I was a huge fan of the Space Shuttle and is part of my teen years. I started high school the same year Columbia had its first mission and remember talking about watching it in class. I also watched in horror the morning of the Challenger disaster. I was sad by the loss of Columbia as it was my favourite shuttle. I will miss the shuttle fleet, they will were a remarkable piece of space exploration.
I grew up with the shuttle, and it will always hold a special place for me. I remember watching the Challenger Disaster live with my classmates in elementary school and wake up to the Columbia tragedy news. I never witnessed a launch in person; the one chance I had, they scrubbed the launch due to weather. Two years ago, I was able to take my kids to KSC for the first time. Seeing Atlantis hanging there in the museum was amazing and quite emotional.
I grew up in Central FL, I was in 7th grade when the Challenger blew up. You could not hear the launches from where we lived, but the night launches were amazing!!
Yes! After Perseverance's landing, I needed more space content, exactly like this!
Loved seeing a shuttle up close and climbing on board one when visiting the Kennedy Space Centre, it's a pretty big beast. When I first went in September 2002, one was sat on the launch pad but unfortunately we came home to England before she lifted off, I was so disappointed.
I also remember sitting around a TV.... which was as big as a caravan.... in class in my infants school watching the first Shuttle launch. It ignited a lifetime passion and fascination with space and I'm still interested in it as much now, some 40 years later.
Martin Marietta did the External Tank, not the “two external boosters”. That was Thiokol.
I guess you have to do the Soviet version now.
Yeeah, the energia was a way more capable lauch sytem, without the buran schuttle that is. A Spaceplane is just dead weight compared to a simple capsule (If you cant make the recovery cheap) and enrgia could be used without the orbiter wich made it way more viable for heavy lift purposes.
The Buran Shuttle, USSR
"Russia had one too but they didn't use it for anything and then a building fell on it."
Energia was the Soviets' first big hydrolox rocket. But it was expensive, especially with development of the Zenit boosters (like the RD-170/171 engines), and with the hydrolox engine powered core being expendable. Energia had two good launches to its name. But who knows how sustainable the launch system would have been (especially since the Zenit engines had problems crop up in the future)
Coming soon :)
I am a retired U.S. Navy Helicopter Aircrewman/Rescue Swimmer. I was stationed on Jacksonville Florida. It's not far from Cape Kennedy. I was fortunate enough to get to see the Shuttle launch 3 times. 1st time my parents came to visit us and we went and watched it launch from Kennedy. We got there early enough to park next to the lake they have. When it took off, you saw it lifting off. Then you could see the surface of the lake start to ripple. Then came the sound. Even miles away, IT WAS LOUD!!! And the van I was leaning against started to shake. Simon, that bad girl taking off was one of the coolest things I have ever seen! One launch, we stood on the seawall at NAS Jax and watched it. The 3rd time, we were flying to South Florida and got a radio call from the air traffic control to make circles to the right. We didn't know the shuttle was launching. Watching it from 1500 ft was cool as he--!
Versatile Shuttle
You brought insight and wonder
The stars still miss you
Need to do a video on the crawler-transporter. It's been in service since 1967, when it first moved it's first Saturn V rocket.
Minor correction. The two solid rocket boosters on the Challenger launch did not disintegrate in the initial explosion. The range safety officer sent the signal to the right solid rocket booster to self destruct at 110 seconds after launch. The left solid rocket booster self destructs almost at the same time.
Searching "how to land the space shuttle'" in TH-cam results in a video from Bret Copeland. It is also the greatest video on how ridiculous and incredible the space shuttle landing process was... from space
The Challenger explosion is one of those memories that you carry your entire life. I have no idea whose house it was, and only a vague sense of what part of town that house was in, but I can distinctly recall what the place looked like and how it felt watching that happen. It's one of my earliest memories, being only 10 years old at the time. I only have a handful of earlier memories (including watching star wars from a balcony seat in the theater). But the memory of the Challenger explosion is probably the strongest.
Of you try remembering little aspects before and after our who you are with that could help. What you did before and after as well.
I'll admit right here that when I saw the design for the space shuttle, with so much stuff out of line, I was anxious, though I couldn't pinpoint why. I hadn't actually studied this stuff in detail, but I knew that there had to be a good reason why the previous launches had a "purely stacked" geometry. My instincts proved correct; while Challenger's failure was primarily due to launching outside of flight parameters (too cold), a "purely stacked" geometry would have almost certainly provided an abort procedure which saved the astronauts' lives. Columbia's failure was TOTALLY due to the out-of-line arrangement of the shuttle, which allowed a briefcase size chunk of ice to strike the leading wing edge of the shuttle during takeoff, utterly dooming a safe landing.
SUGGESTION: (I may have seen this on another one of the channels you host.) The 1969 draining of the American Falls, one of the three falls that make up the Niagara Falls. It was the first time it hadn’t flowed in 12,000 years and dead bodies were found in the sediment.
Simon you need to make a video about the SpaceX Falcon9 and Falcon Heavy
A manned space vehicle that landed back on earth like an airplane all the way in 1981 -- brilliant!
Designed in parts all the way back in the 1960's before the apollo moon landing!
The majority of missions were successful yes, but a failure meant crew death.
In terms of crew safety it was one of the most deadly programs ever in terms of people flown vs people killed.
Anyway, NASA decides to make something renewable and it ends up being as expensive as something expendable, who would of guessed that one?
Meanwhile at SpaceX.
Blame the dept. Of defense and congress. NASA needed more money for the program development, and at the time the old centaur missiles for launching spy satellites were finicky so they made a deal with the devil the laugh military satellites in orbit and bring them down for repairs. This made the plane HUGE to accommodate the satellites weight and size. Also a waste. Because the DoD did develop the atlas for syp launches anyway.
The first plane would have had ejection seats for what good that could do in some instances. But because the size got huge they scraped them because this ship was supposed to be launching at least once a month or more to build the Freedom space station. With airliner like safety ratings.
One of the things the Shuttle seemed to excel at was giving the impression that space flight was routine, almost easy. And in some ways, I think it had that effect on some in the program as well as the public.
The two disasters were horrific reminders that there's nothing routine about any of it. The image of Christa McAuliffe's parents when they realised something had gone wrong was something I'll never forget, even more sobering when we found out later that the crew had been trying to fly what was left of their craft probably all the way until impact.
serious simon: "...Burns for 420..."
me, an intellectual: "nice!"
serious simon: "seconds"
me: oh...
Congrats to NASA and California-based Jet Propulsion Labs for the successful landing of the Mars rover Perseverance.
Fun fact! The tiles used on the space shuttles are such poor conductors of heat you can take one of of a furnacr whrre it is heated to red hot and while it is still glowing you can handle them with your bare hands!
I'm sure you just made that up.
Remove the last parenthesis from the link
Crew wasn't killed when Challenger exploded - Crew Compartment was in tact and emergency O2 and signal systems activated - they were killed impacting the ocean
Love smoking a doobie and watching my daily dose of megaprojects 👌👌
I had the privilege of growing up in Cocoa Beach from 2000-2004, so I was able to witness 17 shuttle liftoffs. Even better, my mother was a bartender at a bar called “Shuttles” which is apparently a favorite amongst astronauts. So, not only was I able to personally meet these amazing men and women at a very formative time in my life, but they also hooked my mom up with press passes whenever they could. We were able to watch 10 of those launches from the famous “countdown” board outside of the various launch pads. We were as close as NASA would allow anyone to be. I will never forget it for the rest of my life. The sound is indescribable.
How about the mega project that is Simons TH-cam presence?
You post like 27 hours of content every 24 hours.
Definitely a mega project.
Fun fact....the command pilot for the approach and landing tests with Enterprise was Fred Haise....the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 13.
I'd love to see a video on NASA's Deep Space Network! Three complexes developed over 60 years spanning the globe comprised of dozens of antennae (some of which are 70+m in diameter) surely qualifies it as a megaproject! Not to mention the actual mission of tracking humanity's deep space spacecraft!
I was in school the morning that Challenger exploded. I was at work the day Columbia didn't make it back. The first I could not understand completely, only that everyone was sad, and President Reagan said we would grieve as a nation and then continue moving forward as a nation. The second I understood entirely too well. Sadness at the loss, resignation in that at least they "returned" to their home planet, and then outrage at the reasons why when even the out-of-loop fans of the shuttle program knew the tile impacts were a threat waiting for disaster.
It was a wild ride, for sure. One I don't think we can look back on as being a negative one. Space is dangerous, and when things go wrong you have to learn lessons from them.
Sooo many memories of shuttle launches and the two tragedies. Sad to see it's day come to an end, but glad SpaceX has stepped up and filled the gap left by the shuttle program's retirement.
and for a fraction of the cost... literally
@@juantelle1 check again.
Do not believe the hype, NASA is paying over $62 million per launch. That is the same as the shuttle per pound.
And much more, as they charge the Pentagon over $300 million. The claims of "$2 million launches" was all bullcrap. But please, feel free to check the truth for yourself.
0311 Mushroom. YOU need to get your facts straight. Each STS launch cost a billion dollars. The quoted possible $2m for a SpaceX launch was a speculative estimate for the planned fully reusable Starship system, and has nothing to do with current launch services. OP was correct.
Only a legend like you could tell a story of such magnitude.
The Shuttle is the coolest f'n thing ever... Even though it was ridiculously flawed and horribly inefficient as far as cost; it's still awesome in the actual definition of awesome.
Agreed, and I think it did have greater potential as a concept early on, but of course it was designed by committee/politics/the military requirements. It still was an amazing historic step in humanity's space exploration development, and certainly enabled building the ISS!
I realize the official cause of the Challenger explosion is that there was a failure in the O-Ring. I had a friend who was working for Parker O-Seal at the time (the company that actually manufactured the O-rings used). According to him, the cause was never conclusive, but they were told that if Parker O-Seal and Morton Thiokol accepted responsibility, funding would be sent their way to improve their research and manufacturing processes. I thought the tale was interesting, but was skeptical. About 10 years later, I worked with another guy, who worked with NASA at that time of the disaster, and he said something very similar. That while the O-ring was heavily suspected to be the cause, they could never conclusively prove it, but incentives were made to have "someone" accept responsibility, and get the program flying again.
The retirement of the shuttle program was the biggest setback in aerospace operations. 🥺
Simon, I'm in Texas and without power for 4 days this week. I think I've seen every single video you've ever posted now! Hahaha
I remember the Columbia incident because it happened over south east Texas. We had so many government officials all around Nacogdoches it was like a movie
14:23 the Shuttle did an Expanse style flip and burn before flipping again for re-entry.
Other way around - the Space Shuttles did it first.
We need a reaction video of Simon watching the hobbit.
Another great video Simon!
I was thinking another 2 part series comparing the Falcon 9 and the Atlas V. Could even add in the Falcon Heavy and Delta IV Heavy if you're feeling bold.
Keep 'em coming!
I will remember forever that fateful morning in 86’. I just about missed the launch and got the tv turned on right at launch. Watching the shuttle explode was horrible. And what Simon didn’t mention in this video is that the astronauts didn’t die in the explosion. They were still alive until the cabin part of the shuttle hit the water.
I love how the bolts that mount the shuttle to the crawler was mentioned. I was unlucky enough to handle them a several years ago to assist a professor I know and those things were not light. A meter long and weighed almost 150lbs. But getting to see and handle some of the spare parts from the different orbiters including Columbia.
Please do something on the "James Webb" telescope, I just can not wait for Nasa to throw that thing up there. Good video as well!
I was lucky to have grown up around Edwards Air Force Base. I watched countless number of shuttle landing's and how beautiful it looked at night, sitting on the back of the 747.
These are memories that I am glad to have lived the life I had.
Love the content Simon and the team.... Thanks Megaprojects 👍
Nice Simon! Been asking for this one
Could you also do a video about the Buran?
Thank you for doing the shuttles, these things are just amazing
I'm pretty sure it was public knowledge that the tile was broken. They announced a space walk in an attempt to fix it. In the post mortem, they determined the tiles had cracked in previous instances over areas reinforced by steel. The area behind this section was aluminum.
Other than that, fantastic video
I remember watching the glide tests as a kid and the STS 01 landing with my classmates when I was in high school. And the tragedies as well.
To this day the word "shuttle" is linked to the Space Shuttle. It really was an iconic image for our age. Yet, just like the word "shuttle" gives me images of wonder, outer space and what is out in space, the word "challenger" makes me feel me with dread, sadness and fills me with goosebumps. In fact during the first US launch of Space X's Dragon rocket with humans, I could not escape the images of Challenger. Part of me was relived when they canceled the launch and ALL of me was filled with joy and excitement when they successfully launched the first manned Dragon rocket.
I got to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the massive fuel tank at the Kennedy Space Center in 2019 while I was in Florida for a Chemistry Conference. It's such an amazing vehicle. Part of why I love it so much was actually because of my dad. He loves all things space (including space and alien conspiracies oddly enough) and loved seeing launches on TV when it was possible. I was born in the 90's, so the Space Shuttle was always what I imagined when I thought of space travel. I also remember seeing how transfixed my dad was when the Columbia Disaster happened in 2003.
I know so many people who largely prefer the Saturn V (and I got to see why; that thing was unbelievably enormous when I saw it at KSC as well,) but the Space Shuttle will always have a special place in my heart.
I only wish I had the same enthusiasm for SpaceX, but idk, I'm not a big fan of Elon, so that dampers my excitement for space travel......
You should do a video on NASA!! It was formed from nothing and I mean so much of the stuff they have done has been “mega” but that wouldn’t have been possible if NASA wasn’t formed and set up all their huge facilities across the country!!
Always a great way to learn is watching your videos, thank you!!
When I was a kid in fl I used to see it lift off from my backyard. It's always been a favorite of mine
Was fortunate to see a shuttle being transported on a 747 landing at Altus AFB, OK for refueling in the early 2000's. The size of the pair in the air was impressive; and looked strangely like a slowly moving dirigible as it came in to land. A really amazing piece of engineering!
Simon: this video is broug-
me: *tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*tap*
finally! much thanks!!
Watched the Challenger explosion live on tv in my 5th grade class. We all couldnt believe it. My teacher started sobbing and it was just a quiet day after that
My 8th grade science class was a bit later that morning, so I didn't see that live, but were instead told about it at the beginning of the class as they were explaining why we wouldn't see live science experiments from orbit that week.
When we first moved out to Mojave (1984) and we went to Edwards Air Force base to watch the landing of the Space Shuttle it was a big deal. During our high school years it didn't matter anymore.
The last landing of the Space Shuttle at Edwards Air Force base was on the runway, not the lake bed.
I was in the young astronaut program.
I was in the 5th grade. All of us were hurrying to class. Kids started asked were the teachers were. We found them in the library. They kicked us out and pulled the blinds. Told us all to go to class and wait for our teacher to arrive.
When our teacher came to class, she let us know the Space Shuttle blew up.
My biological mother was watching the news. She tried to wake her husband. When he asked her what. She replied the Space Shuttle blew up. He replied that can't happen. Then the news came back on. This time he heard and was flabbergasted what his ears just heard.
I've done so many school papers over the accident, from the 5th grade all the way to college.
This 1 accident tarnished NASA's reputation more then anything before.
I think I've watched more of your videos than I've worked this week and here I am. Watching another one
That's one hell of a glide approach!
Yeah, the Space Shuttle was about the world's worst glider. It had a glide slope of about 20 degrees down (jetliners are in the neighborhood of 3-6 degrees) and in order to properly simulate the Space Shuttle's flying capabilities, almost equivalent to a flying brick, the plane they used to train in had to fly with full flaps, full spoilers, and engines running with reverse thrusters on. There was no way to get anything approximating how badly the thing flew as a plane otherwise :)
Harrumph. You didn't talk about the cargo bay. It was the whole reason the thing existed. The delta wing was for cross range. The airforce wanted to be able to fly a single orbit polar mission where a satellite was snatched out of space (see Scott Manley). This meant launching from California, returning over the Pacific and transiting back. They never flew this mission, but planning for it doubled the cost of the orbiter. It really has to be judged by how it performed against it's promise, which was miserably. I have yet to see a deep dive into exactly how usable it was and how many parts really had to be replaced over and over.
I was in the 5th grade in Mojave, CA, when Challenger blew up.
I still remember the day like it was yesterday.
Simon, if you ever come to the US you need to go to Huntsville, AL. There is a museum shuttle there that you can touch. It has real parts on it that went to space.
I remember watching Challengers failure live in our classroom on the small tv we had. To the day of the last launch, it never left me. When I learned at the complete and utter failure at NASA and Thiokol by the bureaucrats that essentially sent these astronauts to die, I relived that shock again. We had always heard the rumors, we knew of the hearings, but it never was really discussed in school at the time. When I came across it again later in life, it hit like a brick to the face.
Yes, the program's failures always will jump to the fore front. Of the 135 STS missions, only 2 led to a catastrophic failure. Sadly, everyone knows of the failures. Most people will remember/recognize at least one of the names of those lost in these tragedies, but otherwise they became so routine, they were of those news stories we'd skip over.
I hope you'll do a video on the Gemeni and Mercury programs.
You already did the Saturn V, but the Apollo Program would be awesome too.
Excellent as always !
1:05 - Chapter 1 - Background
3:10 - Chapter 2 - Development
5:35 - Chapter 3 - Enterprise
7:45 - Mid roll ads
9:20 - Chapter 4 - 1st launch
10:55 - Chapter 5 - The space shuttle
15:20 - Chapter 6 - The shuttle careers
18:30 - Chapter 7 - Retirement
- Chapter 8 -
Greetings Simon from Southern California! I really enjoy your channels and thank you so much for this great video.
My grandfather's machine shop made the inner heat shields for these space shuttles!! They had different ones that lined the inner bay doors.
You should do one on the St Louis Arch that's always been a fascinating story
My middle school was really close to an airforce base that is really integrated with the community. Because of that they had a space camp on base and I got to go with everyone in my school. They had a full model of the shuttle's liveable area and a landing simulator we all got to try. I landed the shuttle
Once again I’m asking for a video about the Noord/Zuid-Lijn in Amsterdam
I still remember that fateful day the Challenger Shuttle exploded... We were watching the launch in our Homeroom Class... There was an eerie silence in the classroom when it happened...
You would figure that the teacher would have quickly shut off the TV, but we all sat there in stunned silence.
Thank you, Simon.
Fun Fact: I grew up 30 minutes from the Kennedy Space Center in the 90s. Watched shuttles go up from my front yard. Visiting the Center was always an amazing treat.
When they canceled the Space Shuttle program it felt like a hole was ripped into my childhood
Space is a Dangerous place...thats why those who travel their are regarded as Heroes.