Why I Don't Like the Space Shuttle [Amy's Soapbox]
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- This is an old video that was on my short-lived second channel. I think it's about three years old? Maybe more? So if it seems familiar it probably is! But I figured it might not be bad content to have up on The Vintage Space, too.
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I like the sense of optimism that the Shuttle era represented. Space launch and return was going to become routine, and then we were going to go on to bigger and better things like Mars. It's also amazing to stand in a museum where an orbiter is hanging and go "This giant thing flew? And stuck the landing on a runway from orbit?"
Amy: "Say hi to everybody Pete!"
Pete: Walks away...
I know that feeling!
He clearly nudged to say hello and then walked away because he didn’t want to mess up the camera focus lol
Then pauses in the rear frame and starts licking himself
Cats will be cats
@rusty nuts Good, I wasn't the only one that noticed.
How could you not like someone who has a lunar, service, and command modules in her purse at all times. 😂 Just epic!
I'm old enough to remember the time a Space Shuttle was stolen by a Bond villain.
I was terribly disappointed when I found out we didn't really have Space Marines.
Shuttles with racing stripes. It was the first bond film I saw in a theater. I still like Moonraker
I remember yatching this movie a few years ago. This movie was gloriously over the top
Dr. Holly Goodhead!!!
Q had the best line "I think he's attempting reentry!"
before they were actually flying too lol
I once heard the shuttle described like this; it’s a butterfly sitting on a stick of dynamite.
I don't think that is limited to orbiter, that describes all human space flight.
True, no escape like all the others one had in the launching
Storey Musgrave described it as such at a “meet an astronaut” session at KSC just after the Columbia accident
Normally the butterfly sits on the stick of dynamite. The shuttle was a butterfly strapped to the side
Indeed
Omg I’m not alone, thank you, the whole project seemed like turning a Corvette into a Kenworth for the cost of an Aircraft Carrier
Then they found that it was then slower than a Corvette, could not carry what a Kenworth could, and was basically just an Oldsmobile with an underpowered engine that you had to continually fix.
If the Apollo was a Corvette, a lot of parts fell off in every single round trip... 😉
SeanBZA perfect analysis of the facts
@@Paul_VanGo So, built by GM then.......
@@Paul_VanGo I think that is what he actually meant. 😅
Hi Amy! One correction :) Gemini 4 was not the first EVA ever. The first space walk was by Alexei Leonov on March 1965. Ed White was the first American astronaut doing EVA several months later.
“Built without a firm purpose.”. Essentially my first lines of code...
Gemini is definitely the most underrated of NASA's crewed spaceflight programs.
The closest is the HBO "From the Earth to the Moon" miniseries, which has a few Gemini-focused episodes.
Theresa Fisher - Michael Collins writes about his Gemini experiences in his memoir “Carrying the Fire.”
I completely agree! Gemini was the bridge between Mercury and Apollo--it tested everything we would need to be able to do in order to go to the Moon and back. Rendezvous and docking, EVA's, working in space, long duration--the works.
It always blows my mind that the Gemini capsule came in under 4 metric tonnes. That's lighter than cargo payloads sent to the ISS, and it crammed in seats for two test pilots.
@@brianfoss571 That's amazing. It's hard to imagine two test pilots spending two weeks orbiting the Earth in the Gemini spacecraft--talk about close quarters! They didn't waste any space designing that one.
I was born in June of 57, so I’ve lived through the whole manned space fight era to date. I was an absolute space nut as a kid, and I remember nearly all of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions. I was very excited about the shuttle program until the realities of its limitation became evident. So like you, I’m excited about the Hubble, but not really the whole shuttle program as it ended up. Money could have been spent on other space delivery systems, far cheaper than the shuttle program used up. Plus I’ve always been a little teed off that Nixon ended the Apollo program before we could decide how to stay permanently on the moon, ala Arthur C. Clarke.
If I still had my mother costume jewelry collection, I would be happy to have sent you some of the clip on ear”rings.”
Don Bryson I was born three years before you and I have a distinct memory of Sputnik and as a child hoping to see it at night from my window.
The thing Arthur C. Clarke got right is we'd have never put a base on the Moon without the Russians launching a lunar space station. Or really any kind of crewed lunar presence. That was smart sci-fi grounded in geopolitics, and most fans of "2001" forget that part because it's not addressed in the movie.
When the rocket is funded primarily as a nuclear war deterrent rather than a vehicle for exploration, 800 lbs of rocks is more than enough to get out of it scientifically.
Ditto. 1961. Space program inspired me to get degreed in physics and engineering
"Gemini IV was the first ever EVA" *Clears throat in Soviet*
for the Americans... :)
@@thorenshammer She's not American, though :p
There were a few other "firsts" mentioned where I guess we were supposed to hear an implied "for NASA".
The first real EVA was Gemini 12 where Buzz Aldrin sunk a capsule in a swimming pool and showed everyone how to work in a neutral buoyancy environment which was the same as a zero g environment. Then translating that to his EVA on GT-12!
All others were either people floating around or getting a very good "schooling" on Newton's 3rd law!
Robert Butler she is an American. Just wasn’t born here.
As for "every Apollo accomplished something new," even Apollo 13 accomplished the very important task of recovering from a "tiny oops" to get the crew back home. 😉
Came for the shuttle rant, stayed for the dinnerware. Great content!
I'm fascinated by the development of the shuttle, far more than the finished shuttle itself. If I may politely ask, it would be neat to cover some of the post-Apollo/pre-Shuttle designs that never made it past the drawing board. I think it's a fascinating chunk of time when people were planning where to go after the moon, when the sky was hardly a limit anymore.
I would also be interested in this.
Read "Into the Black."
I worked with the Shuttle from the first one to last one. I also worked with the Viking.
Amy, you are a very special young lady. The explanation of “your vintage” and it’s impact on your life is wonderful. Well done!
Watched your part 2 of this. Don't mind those people. The shuttle is nice and all but I'm 64 years old and was around for mostly and remember growing up watching the development of the gemini and Apollo programs. I live in Florida and although I never watched a launch from the cape I was able to see them go up from my front yard especially at night. That time was something that people who were not around for will never understand. Even today I watch anyting I can find on that era. I have listened to the Apollo 13 flight directors loop of that whole episode and it was fascinating. I was in Germany (army brat) when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Stayed up all night watching it. The shuttle is OK but it will NEVER match those times. Love your site. Keep going, you're great.
The shuttle program turned out to be a financial disaster; the Saturn launch vehicle could have easily handled all the heavy lifting that the shuttle did at a fraction of the cost, in my opinion...
I always realized that the Apollo missions stepped forward with new and improved capabilities with each mission...and I am not stating that heavy-lift missions would have been like that, aside from design improvements and lifting capabilities of the Saturn...
george martin
I would go further and say it is fact, not opinion.👍🏼
It wasn't the Shuttle's fault that it got mutated into a chimera of mediocrity. Some of the original designs were rather svelte and efficient but political interference prevented it from ever reaching anywhere near its promised potential. Perhaps NASA should have focused on Skylab and instituted a COTS-style program to supply it instead.
George, the Saturn V had no payload capability. How can you possibly assert it could have handled the payload "heavy lifting" capabilities of the shuttle. Two completely different vehicles that had completely different capabilities
george martin
And the funny thing is Richard Nixon started the space shuttle program and ended the Saturn program despite the success of the latter... and republicans put responsibility on Obama for its failure. My god is there general stupidity in saying that alone, but infinitely more in the actions to not stop it. The really sad part is that when you think about it, all it was meant to be was a marketing ploy for capitalism, to get science firms to send off equipment to space in a “reusable” plane. Clearly they didn’t think that the SRBs or the fuel tank mattered by parachuting it into the ocean.
Peter Anderson
That’s a bit far fetched. In the mid-70s we were in a transitional period between the heat of the 50s and 60s in the Cold War and the Reagan era. And with the oil crisis funding had to be diverted to keep Americans working. It had quite the tragic effect on social movements, as well as being partially responsible for the Shuttle’s issues.
Who's here for the hot cat on blanket action?
I remember it before! She reposted it on purpose, methinks.
That’s very funny, I get it!
The cat is having a great time back there.
the cat wasn't the first thing i noticed
I here for the one in the chair😈
You’re so freaking smart and entertaining man. I appreciate your research going into this video.
I remember when they interrupted the Brady Bunch to show Armstrong taking first steps on the moon. I was 4 and i was pissed off.
Lol
I am so confused. This is Amy's channel why would anyone tell her what to talk about or what is Vintage or not. We come here to listen to her opinions and knowledge and she does a damn awesome job.
Well said. I totally agree.
False sense of entitlement.
@Mike Whit First day on the internet?
@@rapid13 No i been on the internet since day one. I was running BBS boards while you was still a cell.
@@airwolf269 Dude you totally missed grumpy's point. For someone that says he's been on the internet so long you don't seem to know much about how ppl on the internet are.
> "I even have vintage Tupperware; this is vintage Pyrex"
You managed to offend both Tupperware and Pyrex companies :P
Pyrex itself no longer exists, now just a name stuck on regular soda lime glass.
@@SeanBZA Pyrex is just a brand not a material. Saying Pyrex doesn't exist is like saying Schrade stopped existing because they switched to cheaper steel. The switch happened nearly 40 years ago...
There's also the fact that in Europe they didn't switch, soooo it most definitely still exists even by your standards.
Soda-lime is better at withstanding impacts, which is the primary way people break them. As far as heat shock... it's just not really a practical concern. Even with borosilicate you're not supposed to go from oven to sink. Generally you've got food in it anyway.
I do a lot of cooking with Pyrex and the only time I've ever had something break was an old Pyrex 9x13 during unremarkable baking. I tend to play fast and loose when it comes to temperature changes, too. Can't tell you how many times my Pyrex measuring cup went from the microwave to the cold water.
I use vintage Pyrex to make mixed tea, everyday. Tough finding replacements after they get broken.
Any chance we could get some more videos on the Soviet side of things and the advances they made?
Well, that's what you get when you cloak everything in a shroud of secrecy. Of course, that secrecy also helped conceal some of the USSR's most embarrassing failures.
The Soviet orbiter was better from an engineering point of view. No heavy launch engines just smaller orbit change engines meant that it could go to a higher orbit and change its orbit to match a satellite's easier.
The Russian Busan threw away the expensive rocket engines at every flight but they still failed to get it working.
@@davidelliott5843 except there were plans to essnetially make it ride a reusable rocket
that would have been far better tha nthe suttle because the nyou get to reuse literally every part of it
and you actualyl get a decently efficient overall design
Agreed, the Russians made some major achievements and firsts in space and now with a lot of the Soviet documents being declassified we are learning more and more about their space programs.
When the US started sending probes to Mars, the USSR had already sent multiple probes into the Venus atmosphere, 3 sent back atmospheric data before Venera 8 became the first probe ever to land on another planet, in 1972. Three years before NASA landed a probe on Mars.
They also made major advances in space station technology with the Salyut program and the first modular space station Mir.
In fact the first two modules of the ISS were Russian, with one of them repurposed for the ISS instead of the planned Mir2 space station.
*I don't like bangs. That hurt didn't Amy. Ha ha. Kidding love your bangs.* The Shuttle launched and REPAIRED HUBBLE TELESCOPE AND EXTENDED ITS LIFE. THAT IS EXPLORING.
Notice how Pete was comfortable on the couch until you waved at him.
He just wants a little privacy. Can you blame him?
I was 10 years old when first saw footage of Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and thought it was brilliant
And your still 10yrs old if you believe it.
@@kdmigloo it's better than being a space denier or a flattard. Every single argument you could ever come up with to suggest the moon landing was faked, has been debunked many times.
2 minutes in.... I totally get it! It's the same as comparing modern cargo ships to European exploration of "the New World"
except the Space Shuttle was not for space exploration but space exploitation
@@SnaxDesAvions i think that's squid's point
Amy, first I want to tell you how much I enjoy your channel. I’m old enough to have seen Alan Shepard’s first flight on TV (I was in elementary school) I remember listening on the radio about Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s Moon landing (I had just graduated high school) I’ve followed the space program from the beginning. Having said that, I loved the Shuttle! Just for the sheer dynamics of it. Watching all that equipment leave the launch pad and break the sound barrier in 45 seconds, then continue to accelerate for another 12 minutes. The whole thing just knocks me out! Then, how “matter of factly” it landed on a runway; just incredible. I know that technology has advanced beyond the Shuttle, but I really miss it anyway. Thanks for the great content, George
I am a massive fan of passion. Your passion for vintage space is clear and I dig it.
Amy: “I don’t like the Space Shuttle.”
Also Amy... “Here’s MY PERSONAL MODEL OF THE SHUTTLE!”
Notice that it is very clearly a toy, and not a model. Kinda like the real Space Shuttle. 😂
Don’t:
Comment:
Like:
This:
It’s:
Obnoxious:
SnorgonOfBorkkad It’s HILARIOUS.
@@danieljbalkwill i was starting to be annoyed by it, then people started whining about how it annoyed them..... now they're fun again.
They give them away for like $10 at the Cosmosphere in Kansas lol
I’ve often seen you on the science channel. I’m so glad I found Vintage Space. I enjoy your description‘s
In January 1986 I was a Senior in High School, I was well versed in anything "Space" related which is a side effect of having a father that literally launched Neil and Buzz to the Moon in 1969 aboard Apollo 11 from inside Firing Room 1 at the Kennedy Space Center. Dad can be seen in the recent film "Apollo 11" sitting at his DDAS Telemetry Network console in the Firing Room @7.44 minutes into the film. Dad was the DDAS Network Controller for Apollo 10, 11,12, 16,17 and Skylab 2,3 and 4.
Dad later built and repaired Space Shuttle Flight Computer Boards at IBM Owego along with the father of SpaceX Astronaut Doug Hurley who lived 3 miles away in Apalachin NY (mob town) including those aboard Challenger. Doug's father was project lead on the first space shuttle flight computers. Since Dad was a contractor we got KSC base passes for the launch of STS-6, Challenger's maiden flight. OMG she was beautiful!
I had been just been accepted in to the Space Sciences / Aerospace Engineering program at FIT just south of the Kennedy Space Center. I was going to be a rocket engineer. I had a co-op set up at KSC. Then in January 1986 Challenger exploded due to human error! Her water soaked flight computers were returned to Dad's lab at IBM Owego NY. Our family was devastated and the Aerospace Industry was collapsing.
I had a hard choice to make! Eventually switched majors to Electrical and Computer and Software Engineering rather than whither and die in the Aerospace Industry.
I had an essay due 3 weeks after the Challenger tragedy. In this essay I advocate cancelling the Space Shuttle in favor of a safer method of travel. Space Planes!
WE ALL KNEW MORE WOULD DIE IF THE SHUTTLE KEPT FLYING !
Then Columbia !
Imagine a 17 year old kid in high school writing this essay AS HIS DREAM BURNED THEN DROWNED IN THE ATLANTIC OCEAN!
I am about to return to the dream... The Project Mercury Film Trilogy (more on fb @ProjectMercuryFilm).
The Space Plane Essay is named after the proposed TAV or "The Orient Express" Space Plane. Recently re-found but written 2-3 weeks after the Challenger Tragedy, printed on vintage 1980's IBM dot matrix printer, is on fb @ProjectApolloFilm ...
Omg, you pulled out the little Apollo you keep in your purse and take everywhere, and I am dead! Adorable♥️
You and Pete stay safe Amy! Thanks for reposting.
The shuttle program lasted for 30 years. Yet it managed to hold us back by at least 40 years....... Oh but it helped us build the space station in 1998. Though we launched Skylab in 1973, and then had to let it burn up in the atmosphere because the shuttle wasn’t ready yet......
The shuttle wasn't like a bus, it was a bus.
Or, a massive U-haul.
Why I will always love the Shuttle: For years, it kept the torch burning for manned spaceflight, in an era where politicians strangled every other mission idea put to them. It may have been a hot mess, but it's iconic, and inspired a generation of young engineers into space science.
@R L Hah! Nice one! Well researched and articulated. I'd expect nothing less. And best of all, no infantile falling back on ad-hominem attacks. Bravo!
@@Blitterbug yeah I don't think hatred of the STS is necessary. It's not the fault of the shuttle that it was a money pit and an anchor to LEO. The world has the politicians to thank for that. It (STS) did fail almost every way imaginable but in the end it is undeniably an awesome machine that brought people and stuff to space and back. If I could go back in time and were given/earned the chance to fly aboard a space shuttle I would in a second.
On it's own it wasn't that bad, despite it's many serious issues. I think it's growing bad reputation came from the successor, or the lack of it more precisely. During the Shuttle era everyone expected that it's going to be a transition from the experimental Apollo era to cheap and routine space flight, but instead it was just retired and that was the end of the American space program. I think if there weren't the ISS (designed to keep Russian rocket scientist occupied), NASA would have been shut down too. And it also didn't help that the Columbia disaster marked the end of it's career, after that it was only flew to quickly finish the ISS.
@R L - We were never going to keep flying Apollo missions indefinitely. Public interest in the program was mixed at best, and it was only funded to deter Russia from launching a nuclear strike with their rockets. When it was clear the Soviets could not launch a super heavy rocket successfully, we launched Skylab and cancelled Apollo, and human spaceflight has been in LEO ever since.
We're only going back to the Moon now because we've done almost everything worth doing in LEO with ISS, and China is working on its Long March 9 rocket. Human spaceflight has much more to do with geopolitics (i.e. showing off your country's space abilities) than science / exploration.
The only thing I love about the Shuttle it's it iconic shape, everything else - no, thank you.
I was never onboard with STS from the start. It was inherently unsafe compared to even the Mercury space capsule, and no one can forget that STS killed 14 astronauts.
Floored by your historical grasp of space travel. Awesome stuff Amy. Keep up the great work. :)
PETER! WHAT’S YOUR DEAL, BRUH?!
He's getting comfy. It's just his back legs have to help in a rhythmic fashion. Normal cat stuff.
One of the biggest issues with the shuttle was that it was compromised by design. The original design called for only OMS engines, and maneuvering thrusters, very similar to the Soviet Buran.
This would have increased cargo capacity, since all the heavy lifting would have been done by the booster stack. There are examples of compromises like that all through the shuttle program.
It stands as a prime example of why private space development will always be superior to government sponsored exploration.
A space fan who doesn't like the shuttle is like a WW2 plane fan who doesn't like the Spitfire
I lived through the era you are fascinated with, born in 1956. I have a lot of space material from NASA I collected at the time on Apollo and in the mid 70s I got to work as a Co-op student at the Marshall Spaceflight Center, initially working on the solid boosters. The shuttle that was built was not the only one proposed, the phase B version was an all liquids vehicle with a fly back booster that had two pilots in addition to the orbiter which would have continued onto orbit. The development cost at the time for this was projected to be twice what we wound up with, but if it had been chosen it would have been cheaper in the long run. Since you are into vintage stuff look into the NERVA nuclear rocket engine program. It would have taken us to Mars and was envisioned to be a heavy cargo lifter to the moon to establish a base there. By the time it was cancelled in 1972 NERVA had run for 60 minutes continuous with no degradation and was flight ready. Take a look at that, there is a you tube video from NASA about it. if we do another shuttle I would favor an SSTO with aerospike engines.
If the Shuttle worked at the costs advertised and the turnaround advertised, I would have been more in favor. However the Shuttle was able to do much more than a disposable rocket could do - remember that it displayed a capabilty to recover and return satellites, as well as serve as a repair platform for the Hubble. Also the ISS could never have been able to be constructed without the Shuttle. The Spacelab module would have been a vey good research platform, but they were never able to do enough launches to allow for the module to be used.
Russia constructed its part by means of rockets...
The shuttle couldve also assembled a manned mars mission in orbit like the iss. But I still hate it because it was the most dangerous space vehicle of all time and it took 30 years for it to meet it's one and only purpose.
Space travel is dangerous. I think if you had another 100+ Saturn 5 rocket launches you'd have a similar disaster rate.
@@calebwaddell6948 u can't say It was the most dangerous vehicle. Every rocket is dangerous. Risks are a part of life.
We went from 3 man disposable space craft to 7 person reusable space shuttles. And although two of six shuttles were destroyed over the years the number of missions balanced the loss. Some people say these missions were boring that the space shuttle was a flying truck but in a way that was the exciting thing about it. Of course there are criticisms regarding its efficiency and operating cost but it did pave the way for new programs providing almost 40 years of service.
I remeber as a kid sitting in class and them telling us about the space shuttle. This was just after the moon landings and a few years before the first shuttle took off. We learned that not only could the POS not get to the moon, it couldn't even get half way to the moon. I knew then that we were not going anywhere in my lifetime. Broke my heart.
The shuttle for me was a lost opportunity. The bean counters effectively killed it before it even started. The original concept was a space plane. Described as a "Cadillac in space" it was supposed to be able to take off and land from any major airport. The bean counters came in with their red pens and it became a "Chevy in space." The Cadillac would still be flying and would likely have been profitable.
The Space Shuttle: Made to haul bureaucratic red tape into space.
My eyes have been opened. :(
Well, Hubble did give us the universe, and ISS gave us over 19 years of continuous human spaceflight.
But yes, it was 2-3x bigger than it needed to be in hindsight. Kinda like the Saturn V. Such was the Cold War :p
A good book to read is "The Space Shuttle Decision." It's an eye-opener.
I completely get it. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo= fascinating discovery and advances. Shuttle= years of boredom sprinkled with occasional moments of brilliance.
Have you considered looking at the manufacturing and industrial machinery from the 50's - 70's? It helps explain why a lot of the aesthetic of the era was the way it was, especially for consumer products. Plus, it of course ties into the problem solving and "why" and "how" of the period.
DEAR AMY...could you do a vid on the Saturn I rocket? Its almost the forgotten rocket in the shadow of the Saturn V, but NASA had two manned rocket systems at the same time.
I only know about the Saturn I from reading too many Wikipedia articles about space...
The one thing I can't believe is they built the Space Shuttle with no launch escape system. I'm old enough to remember watching Challenger on TV in school, live. Apollo had a launch escape system built in but the Shuttle had no way out if things went south. That's just crazy to me. Challenger and her crew paid the price.
Here I always thought I had a weird unique view on the shuttle program and how it related to the history of space flight…Glad to know there's at least someone else who looks at it all the same as me !
I think the reason is because the Shuttle is a part of our progression into space. All things become vintage in time. Every step is important. I'm an old-school rocket guy, but I love it all.
I felt the same way when Shuttle was announced, I called it a TRUCK and trucks never did it for me.
Right? It's like asking someone who likes drag racing; why aren't you into tractor pulling?
Amy pointed out that the original design was that it was supposed to be an actual shuttle, that worked in tandem with other operational heavy lift vehicles.
The problem was when the DoD got involved and convinced/forced NASA to re-design the whole thing so it was capable of carrying gigantic payloads as well as crew. The new DoD version of the shuttle was what became "Space Truck" (TM) that we all know and love now.
So now we had a space truck that could do no more than send crew and cargo to LEO, and no other operational heavy-lift vehicles that could send crew/payload beyond LEO.
NASA stagnated for 30 years because of this. Who would have thought that Apollo's moon landing in 1972 would be the last time humans would ever go beyond LEO?
Supposedly SLS is going to return humans to the moon, but that program is such a disaster (history repeating itself) so far as well that I'll be surprised if it sends humans further than the ISS anytime before 2030, and that date is being generous.
From what I remember it was supposed to be the first step in a plan by NASA. Things didn't go the way they wanted so we didn't get the shuttle or the plan they wanted.
Yeah, had the Shuttle gone the way NASA wanted it to it would’ve been the best program yet. Cheaper Shuttle that supports a space tug system for Moon landings, as well as a nuclear thermal tug for Mars landings. But alas, we got a Space Shuttle designed specifically to steal spy satellites, a job which it never did.
Agree Amy. As I've read the Space Shuttle was created for Military purpose basically. For this reason can not be compared to the previous projects for space exploration. Grettings from Barcelona !!!
I would give anything to be on a blind date with someone and have her purse spill onto the bar only to say "oh that's my Apollo space craft model".
I feel the same way about the Shuttle, although watching the first launch in 1981 was pretty exciting at the time.
Yeah, I remember getting up very early and they scrubbed, then got up early two days later for the actual launch. Crazy that they did a test flight with live pilots.
People are shockingly good at getting used to / bored by awesome things. Remember how nobody cared about Apollo 13 until after the oxygen tanks were stirred?
The space shuttle orbiter in and of itself is a marvel of engineering. One vehicle could launch, re-enter the atmosphere, land, act as a space station with habitat for human occupancy, considerably change orbits, deliver payloads, retrieve payloads, support spacewalks, perform maintenance function.
The limiting factor of the orbiter is that of its mission in low earth orbit. This mission limitation did, yes in fact, stagnate the aspirations for space program for 30-years. The pioneering spirit was replaced with the spying spirit (business as usual).
Nah, the only properly engineered component on that piece of garbage was the RS-25 motor. The super fragile and unique tiles are the sloppiest engineering solution found in aerospace and they killed 7 astronauts and made recycling a shuttle for flight take months and cost nearly a billion dollars. The SRBs, which also killed 7 astronauts were only there to make sure Thiokol got a slice of the action. Some of the service missions couldn't have been done without it but that doesn't mean the vehicle or the entire program was a good use of money.
Googie architecture and design! Space Needle, Jetsons, etc. Mid-Century Modern furniture exhibitions and collections at art museums are some of my favorite things to see. Music of the late '50s and early '60s (Buddy Holly, Beach Boys, Beatles, The Drifters) is often heard as study music in my classroom. Sounds like we share a deep affection for that period's art and design. Love your thoughtful and commentaries. (My Dad worked for Boeing and brought home Dyna-Soar color prints for me when I was 7 years old - yes, I'm rather older than you.)
The soviets couldn’t make any sense of the shuttle, but thought “there must be something we’re not seeing”, so they made their own shuttle, the Buran. After flying it once, they went “naah, it doesn’t make any sense” and dumped it.
It was arguably a better design it I'm remembering correctly as well.
"Yeah it had the Canadarm... GO TEAM!"
:)
The Shuttle was also left-handed.
I can't unsee what is going on with that cat in the background.
What is the cat up to? "Get a room!" :) Love your videos Amy. Personally I really liked the shuttles.
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Apollo left the Earth and explored another world and was cut short in order to fund an over-priced and dangerous space truck to put stuff in orbit. It was so expensive that there was room for nothing else until it was retired. It didn't move us forward. All of the new vehicle designs are capsules, not space trucks. So, we are kind of trying to pick up the threads of Apollo and pick up missions they were thinking about in the early sixties, like Mars.
As a child of the 80's I love the space shuttle far more that I should. I remember watching the first takeoff and landing in grade school, and the Challenger disaster in Middle school. As an adult scientist and engineer, I see it as a deeply flawed program, both from a design and programmatic standpoint.
Is it just me or is that cat humping your pillow for the first 5 minutes of this video?? 😅
Ew. That's why I have no disgusting animals at home -- but people
😲😳🤭. I didn't notice the first time. You encouraged me to review it.
@@marcos49888 to learn how hump? That is embedded in your genes...
Marcos Priateli ...🐶>people
It would appear Pete is actually pinching a loaf on the couch....
It didn't just launch the Hubble, though. It repaired it. What other spacecraft could rendezvous with an already launched satellite and actually do repairs?
As far as I can tell the Hubble Telescope was never an old spy satellite either although it shared some production design with some of them and was actually made smaller in order to save money by using the same manufacturing processes.
Tosh Omni - Hubble was as large as it could be constrained by the size of the shuttle bay.
Great video Amy. "Space Version of the Escalator to nowhere" would make a wicked T Shirt!
Even Buzz Aldrin said they were a mistake. Putting crew and cargo together made them more expensive and less reusable. He wanted a fully reusable two stage system, which is his Star booster design.
Man, these comments are entertaining.
All the dishes and mugs look like our table settings when I was a kid ..... I guess I am vintage
Given the very broad definition of the word we all are. Even my morning poo could qualify.
@@hkr667 that poo is 3 days vintage now
I really have to say, bringing the whole vintage aspect of space travel ( what a truly odd phrase) into the vintage design ascetic and looking at it from a historic standpoint is truly novel and exciting.
We had that same Tupperware growing up!
The cat on the couch screwing the pillow was just so damn funny
Not a surprise when considering your covering and coveting of the Saturn V, which had possible configurations just as reusable as the Space Shuttle, as well as plans to launch a smaller Space Shuttle from the rocket itself.
NASA should just combine stuff
HARP gun was a thing
Circuses shooting clowns from cannon was a thing
... theres a blacksky solution just screaming to be used
RWBimbie
What’s your point exactly?
Definitely would be interested in a "What If" look at the original proposal for the space shuttle, with the flyable, reusable first stage and the smaller orbiter.
That concept was so cool! If NASA had enough money for full Shuttle development, it could've been much cheaper.
When I was in school they would let us go outside and watch the shuttle launch. After my son was born we would go out and watch night launches from our backyard it was beautiful. The sonic boom on return rattle your house quite nicely.
This has a lot of logic to it. Amy has opened my eyes to some mistakes in the space program without turning me against it. Oh, I am not a PROGRESSIVE. Well done Amy.
My mother worked on the Space Shuttle main engine control algorithms but honestly the design is not good
The RS-25 engines themselves were an engineering marvel, insanely powerful and efficient as hell. Had the vehicle they were paired up with been significantly better they would have taken NASA *much* further.
Did your Mother work in a west coast Florida town? I know where the main engine controller was created.
@@aidanjt Too sad that those marvelous re-usable engines will be used just once on the SLS and then discarded to the ocean grave in this era of re-usable rockets.
sulljoh1 - The engine control design was not good? How so?
My older brother worked on the Space Shuttle main engines as an engineer at Marshall. Love those engines, don't care for the shuttle. Bad design, money wasted.
I loved it before and damn I'm going to love it again! Any spacecraft that has John W. Young on is the one for me!!!
Yeah it's a engineering marvel
Michael Morgan Young was on one of the Apollo missions too.
With the Shuttle, there were mainly 3 problems: Lack of full reusability (it doesn't make much sense to recover just part of the spacecraft, NASA just decided to make the Shuttle cheaper to develop than the original two-stage flyback design, but it was more expensive in the long run), lack of demand (NASA couldn't afford any other program apart from the Shuttle, and nobody else wanted it) and difficult maintenance (making turnarouds longer and more expensive). Fun fact: the Shuttle would require about 40 flights/year to make profit, but was limited by ET production to just 24 flights/year.
I love that Simpson's analogy! Escalator to nowhere, I never thought of it like that!
Very accurate!
"Mercury program showed could u swallow food, did ur eye pop out during space flight...."
Le Gagarin: 😐
You may not like the shuttle, but it introduced so many new technologies, it was truly a feat of engineering. That's why I like it.
I am a massive fan of not so vintage Amy! Smart, clever and sexy; what a winning trifecta. Writing from the future back to this vintage vintage show. (I'm catching up)
Thank you for this, Amy! 👍🏼👍🏼
Stay safe!
Yesterday I found out about your channel - great work!
Even though Amy only discusses historic flights, I wonder what she thinks about Dragon Crew about to got up at the end of May.
Good question! I'll bet the history of the Dragon capsule and the technology would be very interesting.
I love the spaceshuttle. I think it failed to achieve what it was designed for, but I still love it. The Image of the Engines right before it launches is one of the most impressives I have ever seen. We were able to learn a lot with the shuttle (and it's failures) too. The fact that the engines used Hydrogen was really cool too.
Could the money have been used more efficient, I am sure it could, but I still love the space shuttle and the idea of the shuttle. I do prefer landing your first stage though :D
I agree. The shuttle, it was said once, was a vehicle that didn't really have a mission behind it. It was simply a way to go to low-Earth orbit for cheaper price. I will say this - I wish we had it now, if only to capture Hubble and bring it back to place it in the National Air and Space Museum.
Amy, I enjoy your videos. Keep them coming.
Yep, cat.
Amy: "Say hi to everybody Pete."
Pete: "Crap, the camera is on."
what the hell was that cat doing back there before Amy noticed him. It looked like it was trying to unstick his zipper.
Love the cat bangin' the couch pillows. I'm subscribed! All kidding aside, Love your videos! Thank you!
I love your video, always informative. Continue doing you!
Amy! Stick to your guns!
I love your info and your take on it.
I'd like to see an episode of how the space race affected pop culture from fins on Cadillac to toaster and Googie style architecture.
Your beautiful kid.
Keep going.
Greg
When you talk about NASA programs from that era, it sounds like their purpose was progress oriented. How do you feel about NASA in 2020 ?
NASA in the 60s? A cold war demonstration of capabilities. NASA in the 2020s? A politically inept bureaucracy.
In general, lots of small programs that do good from previous missions, but are perpetually underfunded. Then the new missions with perpetual underfunding and perpetual creep, and a lot of looking like a massive kitchen with 400 cordon beau chefs in it, all of them thinking they are the head chef, and all making their own creations, but only having a few cups of flour and a half dozen eggs in stock, and no plates.
NASA is still doing incredible work. How much did we really learn by going to the moon? Compare that to all the science we are doing presently. It is so much more cost effective to send robots to far off places then humans.
@@toomanyhobbies2011 Very hard to read this but it is extremely true.
@The Vintage Space
The Space Shuttle was supposed to be used to help assemble the interplanetary spacecraft for the Mars mission that was planned for 1985. When the Mars mission was cancelled, the Space Shuttle was the only part that was retained, but it had nothing to do. I can understand why the Space Shuttle doesn't exactly "ring your bell." To be honest, it doesn't really do it for me either, for a bunch of reasons. But it was the only orbital spaceship we had. And it did have a large cargo and crew capacity. And now, thanks to NASA's ineptitude and congressional meddling, we don't have any way to orbit and have to pay the Russians up to $90 million per seat on their tried-and-true Soyuz.
Thanks for the vid. Always great.