First Space Shuttle Launch - STS-1 (1981)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- STS-1 was the first orbital flight of NASA's Space Shuttle, launched on 12 April 1981, and returning to Earth 14 April. Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the Earth 37 times in this 54.5-hour mission. It was the first American manned space flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project on 15 July 1975. STS-1 was the only US manned maiden test flight of a new spacecraft system, although it was the culmination of atmospheric testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter.
Footage from "Hail Columbia!"
Mankind is awesome
Only in science, not in war.
Sometimes...
MANkind is just fine.
If we just stay out of each other’s way
Guitarfollower22 I like your profile
Sally Ride came to our school when I was 15 for an assembly, she demonstrated the heat shield tiles and took questions. I was one of the fortunate kids who got to ask this amazing woman a question. I didnt have one ready but had my hand up because I HAD to get this chance to ask her...anything. I asked, "When the shuttle first started flying I remember that the main fuel tank was white and now is orange..why is that?" the other kids started to laugh at my question, but Sally Ride raised her voice almost sternly and said "That is the best question so far, and the answer is they realized the white paint they used to match everything for visual reasons added almost a ton of weight so a design change was made and freed up almost 1500 pounds." best day to be a NASA fan in my entire life and it will stick with me forever.
What a wonderful story! Thank you so much for sharing it! =D
Did yi aye
Heartwarming tale. ;-D
Unfortunately, people are still as critical and demeaning to those who are inquisitive and curious as they ever have been. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I always wondered about that too. Thanks for sharing the answer.
Cap'n Slipp Agreed.
It's 2020, the shuttle have been retired for almost a decade, but It still seems like the shuttle came from the future.
So true 👍
It was the future...
Yes
The best looking spaceship so far.
the shuttle is not retired
it's exploded
"We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!"
Today: "Unless it's too expensive."
bridgecross
So you don't mind paying $1100 for a hamburger instead of $10? Good to know.
@@jshepard152 not the point at all fucking dumbass
Jordan it is the point the space shuttle was more expensive and troublesome than any other way to get to space it could do things no other ship could do I’ll give it that but it practically was a disappointment in Alamo’s very field mostly the 3 month 1.4 billion dollar refurbishment cost
@@jordan6988 Obscene language doesn't make your point of view any more valid.
@@jordan6988 That was great.
Hail Columbia.... tears for the loss in Feb 2003...
Lalu Rajendran And for the Challenger In 1986
RIP STS 51L and STS 107
Also Challanger
And Apollo 1
@@Hi-do6fo that’s not a shuttle tho
I saw this launch from the public view site 9 miles distant. I’d never seen thousands spontaneously hugging complete strangers, breaking into song. An unforgettable moment in my life.
STS-1 was the only shuttle reentry that was flown manually, by commander John Young. That in itself is quite a feat of piloting.
Actually that honor belongs to Joe Engle on STS-2. Reason was that Engle was the only shuttle commander who had flown the X-15, the shuttle's closest relative as a rocket-powered winged spacecraft that glided back to earth. John Young among his many accomplishments had not flown the X-15. (Source: Into the Black by Rowland White).
@@mazdaman0075 From the STS 1 Wiki...
" Automatic roll reversals to control energy dissipation rate and cross range steering were performed at around Mach 18.5 and Mach 9.8.[15] The crew clearly observed the coast of California as Columbia crossed it near Big Sur at Mach 7 and 41,000 m (135,000 ft). Both the Mach 4.8 and Mach 2.8 roll reversals were automatically initiated and manually completed by John Young."
P.S. Unsure what Young's lack of flight time in the X-15 has to do with anything. It wasn't even capable of LEO, the shuttle's main area of operations.
Regardless, I'm sure Engle is a fine pilot, probably why he was Young's backup for the first mission.
@@mazdaman0075 From the STS 2 Wiki...
"The deorbit and reentry phase of this mission differed from STS-1, in that while the first shuttle entry was flown as a "middle of the road" test of the automatic guidance, the success of that mission allowed for the STS-2 crew to explore the stability margins of the vehicle's performance. Twenty-nine planned Programmed Test Inputs (PTIs) were manually flown in the Control Stick Steering (CSS) mode, with Engle making use of his past experience in the X-15. These PTIs provided useful data for subsequent engineering modifications.[11] Contrary to the interviewer's assertion in a JSC Oral history conversation with Engle, he hand flew manoeuvres throughout the entire entry speed range, but not for the entire duration.[12] As a consequence of STS-1 entry anomalies, the first roll manoeuvre was flown manually and the elevon scheduling was adjusted to offload the body flap."
@@codymoe4986 Take it up with Rowland White mate. Meanwhile, your source is Wiki ? Right.
@@mazdaman0075 Yes, Wiki. Where they credit their sources at the bottom of the site so you can doublecheck them. Would you like me to do that for you too? LOL!
P.S. Why would anyone lie or try to deceive the public by lying about the first pilot to manually control a shuttle during reentry? This is nothing but plain old fanboy, denial of fact. Go soothe your butthurt elsewhere. That willful ignorance doesn't fly in these threads...
BTW, those Wiki citations led me to the NASA overviews of both flights, probably the same ones that Rowland White misread...Whoops!
R.I.P Columbia :(
Yaeh as well as challenger
1981-2003
been there at first launch in 1981, orbiter nearly hit the tower on launch so they modded software to prevent it real LOUD TOOOOOOOOO!
StormTravelerProtocol why?
StormTravelerProtocol Eh, I mean, they asked for a reusable rocket that lands like a plane and that idea is pretty far fetched so NASA did the best they could :P
The space shut;e is still one of the best most advanced thing man has made. Might be even more advanced than the falcon rockets.
lt's easy to forget what a towering achievement this was.
Almost as great as the Saturn 5 Apollo missions.
@@MrDemoncrusher Yes indeed. Imagine sitting on top of the Saturn 5 when the engines are lit up on the launch pad.
Easy for you maybe ive been amazed with these things my whole life
yeah imagine doing the math for the center of thrust and what angle to put the engines at
@@gutter1 My math was bad so no hope to be enlisted at all in 2022
Who’s watching this after space x and NASA successfully sent up astronauts?
Yuuuuup
I legit teared up the way the woman at 4:50 did too. I remember being upset when the Space Shuttle Program was closing. I watched STS-135 live when I was 18. After following SpaceX for a decade, it felt cathartic to finally see us send our own astronauts into space again.
🤣how did you know
Yup
Yup!
The distinctive orange look the large external tank has is an insulating foam that was only painted white for the first two STS launches. It wasn't painted after the first two missions because the paint alone saved 600lbs (272kg) in weight alone.
Another fun fact, the orange insulation was yellow when it was applied to the tank. It turned orange when exposed to sunlight.
and because of that the foam fell off and destroyed Columbia
crzykoment that tank is ducking massive dude
I believe the one who told them it would be smarter to not paint it was a kid
@crzykoment yeah sure, my room was painted with almost 20kg of paint. :))
I was 8 years old and visiting my grandparents. I asked my grandmother to wake me up in time to see it!
Well?? Did she wake you up? The world needs to know and you've just left us hanging. You monster!!! lol
I was 3 :)
My parents hadn't even met when this happened
I think I was about the same age then. Still remember it was a Sunday morning, even had a space shuttle t shirt on. Lol! Kinda disappointed with my son.He just got off the bus about 1min before the Falcon 9 heavy launch. Couldn't care less about it even though I begged him to watch, I just gave up because I'm not pressing the fucking pause button. If you can't tell he actually pissed me off!
I was in my moms stomach
The Shuttle never really did live up to the promise of being cheap, reliable space transportation and in many ways really was a bit of a boondoggle.
Depite all that, however, watching a Shuttle launch, and THIS launch in particular, will always be special to me. Columbia will always hold a special place in my heart. She was my favorite, the one that fueled my imagination as a child. My heart broke when we lost her and her brave crew.
what would you suggest we would have done at the time
In a perfect world where space exploration budgets dont get slashed because of an asshole like Nixon, they should have built it for what it was intended for, a truck to build a massive space station that was supposed to be the staging ground for colonization of the moon and the exploration of mars.
She was only supposed to be one part of an ambitious space program, instead she was the only survivor of budget cuts, and the compromises made to get her in space made her an expensive jack of some trades.
Dont get me wrong, I love the Shuttle, but she was a compromise.
The original plan had a much smaller reusable shuttle to ferry astronauts and supplies to and from a space station whose components would be lifted by Saturn rockets. But as DD Brock said, Nixon cut NASA funding (and felt the Saturn rockets were too much a part of JFK's legacy, and Nixon was salty about losing to him) so the only thing kept was a shuttle with no destination to shuttle between. And even that was contingent on the shuttle satisfying the DOD's requests as far as cargo space and lifting capacity, so the shuttle became much bigger than NASA had intended. This necessitated the SRBs which were of course the point of failure in the Challenger disaster. If you're interested in what could have been, Vintage Space has a great video on the Apollo Applications Program and Curious Droid has a great video on the dubious legacy of the shuttle program.
All that being said, there is something so goddamn American about the space shuttle. Like out all the different factions with different goals, special interests, and political bullshit, came something unlike anything else the world had ever seen. And no, it isn't perfect. It's killed people. But it's inspired legions more. And despite falling short of the high standards we hold it to, its list of achivements is awe inspiring. It pushed the boundaries of what was feasible and created something so iconic, the entire world knows where it's from.
expensive, wrought with complexity and bureaucracy, limited capabilities (restricted to orbit) but DAMN what a machine.
In 100 years time sending humans to space will be easier. But people in the future will look back on this time and they will be amazed at what was done here.
I am not sure about that. Do you nowadays look back at wooden carriages and tell how impressive they were?
@@comandosespeciales I agree with you. Most times people speak about the past it is in a critical sense- "Why did we do it that way back then this is so much easier!" type of thing.
comandosespeciales that’s because you see only a wooden carriage. But mankind has accomplished wonders even in prehistoric times. You have to see deeper.
@Mike O 108 years ago is not that long ago, and it certainly is an impressive machine. Now look back at Egyptian ships and see how they compare. We've been sending stuff to space for a very very short time, less than a hundred years. In a couple thousand years our current space rockets will look as complex when compared to future tech as comparing an Egyptian ship to the Titanic.
@Mike O I'm talking about thousands of years, you're talking about decades. The first carriage we know about is something like 4 thousand years old, I was talking about Egyptian ships because they're about 2 to 3 thousand years old.
Think what Saturn V will look like to someone living in the 4060's, not the 2060's, that's if we're still around by then.
It is so incredible they were able to do this 40 years ago!
What 1981 was 40 years ago?
@@legendarypussydestroyer6943crazy isn’t it
I watched that (tv), as a kid. The shuttle was truly beautiful. As much as I appreciate the current crop of craft and launchers, the shuttle beats them hands down for looks.
What an amazing day that was for America and the space program! Columbia deserved better than dying from a broken wing 22 years later.
Far More They A Broken wing
Actually, Columbia already almost met the same fate on this very STS-1 flight due to damages to the heat shield. Parts were molten down to the aluminum frame after the landing.
@@RobertNielsen1970 challenger was something else. It had a broken O-ring on one of the SRB's.
(Don't ask me what that is, i saw it in a video)
@@MiguelMitchelMichiel I know all about _Challenger._ I misread the original comment before I replied. My mistake. And, I forgot all about how there were lost tiles, after _Columbia's_ launch.
Skorpio umm it’s 30 years!
The shuttle will always be missed by me, it was the main craft used since I was 4 and I always loved it.
the Shuttle has cemented its place in history without a doubt, yes there was the 2 disasters but between the 5 orbiters they completed 133 missions to space - and even today videos of the Shuttle when it launches is still one of the greatest sights we'll ever see
The power of those raging engines at liftoff was just fascinating. Too bad to see these machines be retired.
Nothing like Saturn V! My god that thing made the earth move lol
The engines are being used on the SLS!
Today It's the 40th aniversary, thank you Space Shuttle for so many awesome launches and missions.
l realy loved the shuttles l am from uk back in 2000 l was on holiday in florida were dicovery flew in to space 730 in the morning will never forget my dream came true to see a shuttle take off thanks to my late wife it was a present for my 40th birthday best present ever
I'm sorry for your loss. Your wife sounds wonderful
That is awesome man. What a beautiful memory to have. I am also from the UK and my wife took me to KSC in 2018 as a present whilst we were in Florida. We took a tour out to launchpads 39A & 39B - The place is magical and makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up just being in the presence of all that history and achievement. I teared up a little when I saw Atlantis in situ in her museum. I can't even imagine how breathtaking it would have been to see a shuttle launch :)
And tomorrow, from the very same launch pad, the Falcon Heavy.
I was there 😁
Isnt that also the launch pad of the saturn V
ChermBo True. Just to get to a manned crew to the moon, you will need two FH and a Falcon 9. I think you can extend it to 1 FH and a Falcon 9, but the FH isn’t made for manned missions, which is kind of a bummer. At least it’s reusable.
And later...the BFR which will bring the first people to Mars...
@@gergleshmerf3544 yes. Launch pad 39A. The same launch pad as Apollo 11.
I watched this when I was 16 years old. My love for space, astonomy and science was peaked by this and the endless possibilities that lie ahead.
My love for the band "Rush" brought me to this video.
Its 200 feet long and weights 2000 tons, it blows my mind that it gets off the ground. Pure genius.
Its amazing that vehicle does more than 21,000fps up there. A FAST rifle bullet goes 3000fps.
What's really amazing it went 0-100mph in ~8 seconds straight up.
davidca96 did you just use frames per second as a unit of speed?
Fredrik
Feet per second
Feet and tons in the same sentence !
What an utterly incredible feat of human engineering and science. When I first got interested in space it never occurred to me how much of a radical design this was, it is a space plane! Over 120 missions and countless other flights with just two major failures, a testament to the true and awesome ability of humans to to go further and succeed, push the boundaries and discover. If I'd gone down any other route in careers it would have been aerospace, so I could say on my deathbed I've contributed towards a scientific endeavour for the prosperity of human kind in future generations
SpaceShowFeature 1 and every single one of them knew the risks and couldn't wait for the chance to go into space. Most complicated piece of machinery ever.
They knew using o-rings was a crappy idea - they still used them. They knew it mustn't be launched in cold weather - they still did. They knew frozen foam falling off was bad - they ignored it.
And to add to all this, they were smacked in the face by warning signs. On recovered boosters of cold-weather-starts before Challenger, they've already seen o-rings that were almost burnt through. On STS-1, the one shown here, they had parts of the orbiter molten down to the aluminum frame after landing - not much more, and Columbia would already have disintegrated on its maiden flight, not two decades later.
@@elgoog-the-third It's sobering to think that a Columbia type accident in 2003 could well have occurred on its maiden voyage.
PAJeeper420 they knew the risk it’s just they had shit supervisors who cared about deadlines
I was part of the Space Shuttle 1977. Ed Scully was my boss Chief Engineer
Nicd
Nice
Thank you for your contribution.
You laid one of the bricks on the road that leads our species from the caves to the stars.
If you did nothing else in your life, it still wouldn’t have been wasted.
One day, far in the future the fact that we’re not bound to earth will be the salvation of our species.
Just came across this video and realized it was 40 years ago today!
What a day that was! I get so emotional every time I see this. This was probably one of the very best day of my life.
I had this video on a dvd when I was a kid. Used to watch it so often. I'm an engineer now!
Since She (Columbia) Will never rest in a museum, She deserves to be shown in this great light we all call IMAX!
well, part of her is displayed in a museum! the cockpit windows are displayed at KSC visitor complex
Watched first launch with awe, pride amazement and fear. Fear they'd be ok. We watched from small TV we had at work. It still brings cold chills to me. I try to convey to my children how special and awesome it was. This video certainly helps. Thank you and thanks to all you flew these magnificent ships.
To think that they had no idea if this thing would blow up as soon as it left the ground. The nerves of the test pilots and the ground crew who let them in.
Yeah, thats what blows my mind. Would never happen nowadays.
Really? After Trump called for the first flight of the SLS to be manned?
@@phoenixrising4573 Yeah really. The risk associated with the shuttle vs the SLS is not comparable. The SLS has a relatively reliable escape system, the shuttles best hope for an early engine(s) failure was wait until the solids burned and then flip it over, eject the tank at apex and do a RTLS (return to launch site). Crazy maneuver at best. The shuttle was totally new territory in 1981. I still remember the concern about the tiles that fell off on STS1 , luckily they didnt experience much heat load in those areas but engineers were afraid of a zipper effect upon reentry. We've been there, done that with the SLS.
Chris Barth you still dont fly heavy lift manned rockets without a proof flight. Even thought the engines are a known entity, the rest of the rocket is not.
Having a good escape system is not an excuse to return to the shot show that was safety in the shuttle era. Escape systems fail. Even if they do work, you run the risk of killing/crippling astronauts.
It's all academic anyway. Sls is nothing but vaporware that, if the BFR and New Glenn are successful will never be flown
@@phoenixrising4573 Exactly, no proof flight with the shuttle. BTW, I agree that there should be a unmanned test of the SLS but then again, they kinda screwed themselves by choosing leftover RS25 engines from the shuttle, limited supply of those. Very expensive as well. All around clusterfuck. IMO to fill in the gap we should have used existing infrastructure and built one of the shuttle derived designs or used a EELV like the Delta IV or the Atlas V. SpaceX has kinda made those obsolete though.
I got a detention for watching this live. Apparently it was not a good excuse to miss my morning period classes! Totally worth it though!
I will never forget this launch. My parents let me stay home from school that day JUST so I could watch it live on TV. I was crazy about rockets.
I remember watching the launch from here in Australia I was 7 years old and I thought this was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Same here except I'm from the u.s.
elige brown same here, norway
Prior to the shuttle, I had watched the launches of Gemini and Saturn V rockets, which were slow and lumbering and barely seemed to make it off the ground. I remember watching this on TV that morning. At 8 seconds the shuttle engines started and then at zero BOOM! the solids kicked in, and WHOOOSH it went up FAST!!! People were awestruck....nobody had ever seen anything like it before!
That's an optical illusion they accelerated off the pad about the same rate. Some of that has to do with engine startup time differences. The Mercury\Atlas had the most aggressive launch acceleration followed be the Gemini\Titan II and the Apollo Saturn V was the slowest off the pad. They all accelerated from 0-100mph in 7-9 seconds, the Shuttle was the slowest to orbit by a fair amount time, that was partly out of crew comfort and design limited accordingly.
What made the shuttle seem so rapid was the main engines have a short start up time vs the older rockets. Additionally they are very clean only producing steam until the SRB's ignite. It's the fact that SRB ignite and shuttle pretty much begins lifting off the pad a fraction of second later that make it seem like it's accelerating more quickly. In reality it only reached 100mph about 500ms quicker than what appears to be a lumbering Saturn V.
@@GlassTopRX7 I don't doubt you're right, but having just watched a compilation of rocket launches, damn did they look slow compared to the Space Shuttle!
GlassTopRX
And today, the Crew Dragon just tears off the launchpad at break-neck speeds...
Eerie to see her fly for the first time and, though a machine, seemed to take on a personality of her own, especially knowing how hard she fought to safely bring back the crew in her last flight. RIP7
Mike D Astronaut John Young said that very same thing and it brought tears to my eyes.
That was a very sad day for all of us such loss and she did fight. (So did Challenger...)
Man, watching that thing rock back and forth on the pad is unbelievable. Side note for anyone interested....they actually had to account for that during launch. The main engines would fire, it would rock forward then when it came back, they would light the boosters and launch. That’s gotta be SOME feeling when you’re strapped in...
I read Cmdr John Young said an Apollo launch was a more violent experience which makes sense because of the power, mass and speed a Saturn V needed to reach for escape velocity.
That guy punching the air during takeoff is legendary.
This has become my signature celebration whenever one is required. From football games, tennis matches, Olympic events, classical recitals, rock concerts, parents evenings, graduation ceremonies, bar mitzvahs and making her squirt. I'll be there, punching the air in the stylee of that man! 👊
R.I.P. columbia you were first born and first to rest......you are still missed!!!
Southwestairlines737 Actually, Challenger was first to rest
Whatever Chad. Its still the cooleset fuckin thing ever to reach space
Kamilla Bak
proton m is kinda fuckin awesome tho. Hydrogen, nothing but water vapor created n whatnot
40 Years Later
I just finished the book "Bringing Columbia Home" and had to seek this out again. I'll always regret never making it down to Florida to see a launch.
John Young flew Gemini twice, Apollo twice, piloted the first lunar module in space, landed a lem, walked on the moon, Space shuttle twice, 1st commander of a shuttle and you think you accomplished something. I was 2 years out of college when this flew a simple mechanical engineer that went on to invent things for flying machines. I have truly lived in magical times. I’m proud of John Young for inspiring this kid from the prairie.......God Speed Mr. Young!
Hands down one of America's greatest astronauts. A true legend in every way.
I remember 9 years of age at the time not having tracking sources like we have now an the newspaper telling to look at the sky in a particular direction at a particular time to see it pass. And the joy of actually seeing it. Great memory.
STS 1 was the flight that started it all when she lifted off the pad The Shuttle Era began sadly she was killed on her 28th mission STS 107 RIP Columbia Orbiter 1
A beautiful spacecraft. Hauling all manner of stuff to the skies!
I was a senior in HS when this beauty took her first flight. I still get a lump in my throat, and I am still awestruck at what we achieved as a species with these space ships. I love these shuttles and how they propelled us forward in space exploration. I am glad we kept a few to display so future generations can marvel at them.
These launches was such a big deal when I was a kid. They would bring school to a screeching halt so we could all watch. That was back when the concept of routine space with a reusable orbiter was still a marvel.
I've only witnessed one Shuttle launch in person, and I feel fortunate to have done so. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.
Only one you said? FUCK-YOU!
Describe the loud.
Werhner Von Braun died a few years earlier. I think he would have been really disappointed on how the Shuttle turned out and how it held us to low orbit for so long.
What other space program was there?
@@RideAcrossTheRiver Well, that was the problem, actually. The Shuttle was supposed to be one part of a much larger deep space exploration program that included enormous space stations and long range spacecraft. The Shuttle was the only thing that survived Nixon administration budget cuts, so what was supposed to be a utilitarian space truck became a bloated over-engineered massively expensive program that spent much of it’s career searching for a reason to fly until the ISS came along and it finally got to do what it was intended to do.
@@corneliuscrewe677 The Shuttle program cost $138 billion over its 40 years. Apollo cost $100 billion over its 12 years. "Massively expensive program"? The math has it.
@@RideAcrossTheRiver NASA during Apollo was allocated over 6% of the national budget. Post Apollo and throughout the entire run of the Shuttle program they operated at under 1%. The math has it.
@@corneliuscrewe677 Wrong. Apollo cost almost $10 billion per year, whereas the Shuttle cost $3.6 billion. Apollo was a grossly expensive crash program with the tenuous goal of pissing on the Soviets.
40 years, thank you NASA.
I was 13 when Discovery made her final flight, and the logic for using capsules adds up, but the shuttles had a style all their own and I'm so glad I was here to watch them fly
There would never be a more proud moment in the lives of designers and makers of Columbia than this.
То да. Позор пришел на 5 лет позже. А потом и колумбия 7 трупов собрала.
I remember that day. I couldn't have been anymore prouder of our NASA program and it was a very sad day, for me, when they retired it. Personally, I think they should have kept that program alive forever to service our Earth's orbital ongoing needs like in the building of the international space station, servicing the space Hubble telescope, military satellites, etc. The payload on that ship was incredible in size. There'll never be another awe-inspiring spacecraft like the shuttle again. They shouldn't have given up on this. It's missions were too important and the shuttle was our source of getting things done in our orbit.
There wasn't that many left of them...
Wrong. The Shuttle did exactly what it was designed to do. Without it we would not have ISS, Hubble and its repairs and maintenance, etc. I retired after over 30 years in program, what's YOUR experience?
@@TigerTiger-wf7xq It was designed to be cheaply reusable, a mission at which it utterly failed completely and totally. Half a billion dollars per flight. That's the antithesis of the very core principle of the Shuttle program. Other than that it was a stellar vehicle and given how insanely complex it was had a pretty damn good safety record. However, the idea never played out as planned, and we weren't going to make any forward progress unless we ended that program. We'd have just kept it like Russia has been stuck on the Soyuz for 60 years without any real progress. Things now are changing. We have a rocket that doubled the heavy lift capacity of the world's most powerful rocket, but cut the price by 75%. We're not many years away from a pair of rockets that put even that to shame (New Glen and Starship/Falcon Superheavy). We have a pair of vehicles that are about to be tested for human rating, and if all goes well, at least one of them could be flying regular contracts to the ISS by year's end, for far less than Russia is currently charging us and even more cheaply than the Shuttle cost. As much as I loved the Shuttle Program and it inspired me to go into astrophysics and programming, it was time to move forward with what we had learned. And we are. It's unfortunate that there was such a huge gap in there, but forward we have moved.
@@TigerTiger-wf7xq The unimpressive part of the shuttle is that the Apollo design was capable of space telescope maintenance and space station building for less money and more safety not to mention that Apollo was capable of interplanetary flight beyond LEO such as a manned Venus flyby. This is available for your review in NASA documentation from the Apollo Applications Program. I am struggling to understand what PRACTICAL technology the Shuttle program delivered. Any enlightening comments from having worked there would be appreciated.
Happy 40 year anniversary!
I have a great Idea:
*Lets do the space race again.*
_This time to mars!_
Vedant Chaudhari it’s happening right right nasa and spacex
@@theenjeneer2493 I don't think NASA is very interested in Mars right now
sure, there are plans to send Orion to Mars but mostly it is meant to travel to the moon
I remember getting to see this on a TV in elementary school live. Shuttle will always have a place in my heart as coolest spacecraft.😎👍
As they said, it was the first true spaceship of humankind!
I worked combustion devices engineering for the 3 SSME main engines on that maiden launch. I believe they were engines 2005, 2006 and 2007. After performing the green run hot fire tests, one of the engines developed a serious erosion of the fuel preburner face and one of the stability baffles. We performed a unique repair which we had not demonstrated before. On the morning of the launch as I watched on TV, the astronaut's pulse was about 70. Mine was about 170.
I've been fortunate enough to experience engines I've built leave the pad as well, but never with people on board. Major respect to those who came before and showed the rest of us that such a feat is even possible.
Watching this after watching the crew dragon demo 2 launch last weekend is making me cry happy tears.
Mixed feelings about this. While it was exciting to watch, the shuttle missions condemned us to 40 years low-earth orbit space flight.
It's because NASA just became a jobs program for every congressman and woman to look good and get reelected. They didn't care about actual space travel. They just cared about the money.
Thank you for posting this. The two launches that stand out the most in my memory were Apollo 17 and STS-1.
Thank you for posting this! I remember watching this on tv when I was a kid. So exciting at the time! It's funny how people take technology like this for granted now.
First time I watched a space shuttle launch was when was around 3 years old in the Armageddon movie.
When I saw the Atlantis launch in 2011, I was 15 and that was the first time I saw a real space shuttle launch, which happens to be the last one for the space shuttle program. I was listening to the Battle of Coruscant soundtrack on my phone when I watched it.
I closed my eyes and imagined once Atlantis reached space the crew would see Venators and CIS capital ships just firing at each other.
When I saw the Crew Dragon Endeavour launch and saw that Baby Yoda doll, I thought to myself, "the magic sort of left" and it wasn't the same without the shuttles but I knew deep inside it will do. I know deep inside we will get to the stars in the future, but I will keep on dreaming. The Resurgent-class star destroyer, the Venator-class star destroyer, the Nebula-class star destroyer and the MC80 Liberty-type are my favorite fictional capital ships.
Until then, I'll let my imagination go wild until we get there.
Indeed, it's a truly amazing thing to see in person. It's one of those things I'll always remember fondly and with great pride :)
The Space Shuttle is to this day the most complex machine man has ever made. I find it so impressive it was made in the era it was, with such limited technology.
They made the technology under this creed: Necessity is the mother of invention. If they ran into an issue, they developed the technology to address it.
it was also the most dangerous way of getting to space.
Not to mention limited funding,.
After Richard Nixon gave the go ahead for the development of the Space Shuttle programme in 1972, , he slashed NASA's budget by 20% forcing NASA to make compromises in the Shuttles original design which undoubtedly affected it's safety.
th-cam.com/video/Ja4ZlswGvpE/w-d-xo.html
R.I.P. columbia.
Knowing what we know now (bad o-rings, possible tile breakage, etc), it's a miracle these early launches didn't end in disaster...
Even though in the end the program proved to be more of a failure than success, and vehicle itself had colossal amount of problems I still love Shuttle. I love it to bits. It's awe inspiring.
back when we all had dreams .....
Joe Weiser unfortunately, the space shuttle didn't fulfill those dreams. The Apollo program achieved much more
@@moe20000 let's not forget about Gemini and mercury, which paved the way for apollo
coolmoedude Take off like a rocket and glide back to earth. Indeed it did fulfill those dreams.
Amen
Hoping the space force will encourage the government to put more $$ into space travel, even if it is with military intentions originally. If not the private sector will do it with Virgin Galactic, Space X, and Blue Origin.
God bless America. With love from Russia.
It was 36 years ago today that this historic aviation event took place :-) ROCK ON!!!!!!!
Watched this launch on tv with my dad, who was a huge NASA fan. I had the good fortune of seeing many launches, shuttle and otherwise, live over the years in Florida..partially because we spent summer vacations sometimes with relatives down there and often visited the cape/and space centter and partially because I was stationed in Orlando for almost 2 years in the Navy. Went to the cape every chance I got to watch launches. The most memorable was a 2am or so shuttle launch one year...STS 35 I think it was. Amazing seeing the clouds all light up as the ignition fired and watching it rise through the layers of clouds.
My grandpa was in his early 90s when he watched this on the TV. He was 12 years old when the Wright brothers made their first flight. He remembers seeing it in the newspapers. He also saw some of the first airplanes flying just a couple years later. To think what he had seen mankind accomplish in his lifetime.
40 years ago today!
Columbia 1981-2003 :'(
why did they stop doing this with this shuttles?
it exploaded with the crew of 7 people.
It was determined after the loss of the Columbia that the Shuttle fleet should finish the
International Space Station and then Retired
@DirtRoadTraveler - people that think Manned Space Flight is Dull and Boring
are usually Socialist Democrats
@@Ford_Raptor_R_720hp_V8 like how Nixon, a Republican started the trend of cutting NASA's funding, or when Bush, a Republican signed the death warrant for the shuttle program? Last I checked every time a conservative enters office NASA takes a cut in funding.
"Aboard this compact starship, a lone astronaut, Captain William 'Buck' Rogers, was to experience cosmic forces beyond all comprehension..."
Glorious, magnificent beast! Mankind's first world-class space ship of its time. I want to hug everyone who worked on this program.
41 yrs ago. I was 10 yrs old the time and saw the launch on TV in Sweden. My family gathered with our neighbours, had cake, soda (yes the grown ups whiskey) and just Marvelled at this wonder of human engineering.
Remember it like it was, no not yesterday, but I do remember that evening.
SLS is cool yes, but no where near the shuttle!
My parents had the Awesome Saturn V and I had the Shuttle 🥰
Wow am I really the only one finding this the day of the 2020 SpaceX Launch!?
Fair well John Young.
Greatest astronaut!
Out of this world carrer.
Remember it well. Back in a time where people did most of their communicating face to face and didn't see conspiracies in their Corn Flakes .
Ok boomer
The earth is clearly flat. The USA government is deceiving you!
@@RemoveBolshevik LMFAO you're still using 'ok boomer' as a reply????? hahahaha You really are immature.
@@alloneword7427 Ok Boomer
@@goodluck6948 return to your basement dotard
The song at the beginning gets me in a relaxed mood
As an 11 year old boy, I stayed up all night just so I wouldn’t miss this launch. So awesome!! Via con Dios Columbia, you made us proud !!
“We choose to go to the moon! We choose to go the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept. One we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” -jfk 1962. I think they should have ended apollo but replaced it with a new mars program that used small apollo style landers and a space station in mars orbit. And also revamp the shuttle to be safer and a touch more modern and that could fly out of earth orbit and dock with the mars station. I think it would be possible. We would just have to devote more money to space travel and take some ideas from spaceX boeing and older craft such as apollo, the original shuttle, the spaceX starship (which i think is pretty much my idea here) soyuz, the ISS, and planes. So basically I pretty much think that would be quite similar to StarShip which I think could be the future of space travel and how we get to mars. I also think the SLS, orion capsule, and dragon spacecraft have a lot of potential too. also I think we could do pretty much the same thing for research on the moon.
Why would you design a mars version of the shuttle? You can’t land it like an airplane on Mars. The only way to land heavy payloads on mars is propulsive landings.
Henry Stitt i mean to carry the small landers to mars orbit and a mars orbit station
If there's an afterlife and Columbia isn't being flown there, I will steal her and fly her myself.
Nah she's there for sure, her and Challenger. The first two. :')
RIP Shuttles.
@Eagle1 no u
Ah the first shuttle launch, the one before they realised they dont need to paint the Fuel Tank
This machine was ahead of his time... And i hope that some day we see a space shuttle like this to fly again
I was 19 and was in awe at what I was witnessing. Another example of American ingenuity at it's best! Nothing but admiration for those astronauts.
We need a new age space shuttle.
The Dream Chaser from the Sierra Nevada Corporation is currently under development!
SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket.
It isn't really a shuttle but... it has the delta wings xD
Well, it can land and take off (especially from Mars, where it won't even need booster rocket - only its own engines and tanks!) with cargo and crew aboard and is completely reusable.
Shuttles are not terrible efficient, no matter how you dress them up. The BFR will far exceed the shuttle, hell even the dragon and dreamliner exceed the shuttle. It may not be as "sexy", but it's better.
I miss it.
That must have been one of the most buttclenching launches in history. Can't remember another one that was manned on the first launch, except for the Apollo 15 launch from the moon surface. It didn't even have a proper launch abort system.
Apollo 11 launch was before apollo 15?
@@arcaipekyun4232 How did I fuck this up? Yes of course, I meant Apollo 15. Thanks.
Gonun i think you meant apollo 11, you had written apollo 15 at first.
Still no problem :)
@@arcaipekyun4232 haha, I fucked it up twice. Time to go to bed
I was 13 years old, I remember this like it was yesterday!
I was 3 years old in 1981 and remember when my mum had the news on and I was amazed by the launch. Think it was around 2.30 to 4.00 pm here in UK. For the first two launches the fuel tank was painted white
it definitely looked like a new born bird
Yeah, I agree, it is a hatchling.
@@aonoymousandy7467 lol 7yr old kid talking to himself
Epic
This just doesn't seem right without Rush - Countdown playing over the images... :)
Karl Olson I was thinking the same thing....
@@xxTexas_outlaw71xxttv Countdown is about this historic launch.
@Marc Johansson Still Kickin has already done it far better than I ever could: th-cam.com/video/KyA6VDdw9JY/w-d-xo.html
My heart broke when we lost both shuttles. Columbia and my favorite Challenger...R.I.P.
I remember exactly where I was on this launch day. I was 14 and I had stayed up all night, watching TV. This came on about 7 a.m. and I was riveted to the TV, despite my fatigue. No one had seen anything like it.