My grandma was bugging me to get ready for church. We'll be late. I said Grandma I am not leaving till I see this launch. She sputtered and fussed, she didn't drive. I saw it lift off and we still made it in plenty of time.
Well, I really don't feel that God is all that ridged. How can He be? He made the Platypus. God, to me, is laid back and has a wonderful sense of humor!
This flight was supposed to go on a Friday morning but was first delayed and then postponed because of a computer glitch. I was a senior in high school and quietly furious that none of the teachers at school at a tv on. But because of that glitch, the second attempt happened two days later on a Sunday morning. I was at home, in front of the tv with my family. When Columbia jumped off the pad, the seven of us jumped up and cheered.
I remember watching this at school too and it was scrubbed. Wound up over sleeping during the launch on Sunday and running up to the TV and hearing "the shuttle is now over the Indian Ocean" ... I threw a fit. I missed it. Crying. Waking my dad up and he slapped me so hard I stopped crying! Great times.
Right. In Sweden it was about 1300 o´clock. I saw it on TV. Did see the first one also, the one that got postponed. This was BIG. Not as big as the moon landning but second to it.
I don't think you understood my message there... I'm from Québec. A place where we criticize USA exactly for the reasons you wrote. I agree with you on this. Yeah, it's a ugly nation on various points (wars, inequality, lack of individual privacy, etc), but we cannot take away the fact that US space exploration helped us to expand our knowledge of the universe!
I was there at the time. We slept overnight in an outside area at KSC because we knew someone with VIP passes. All night long the loudspeakers kept going off with "Stay close to this area, because there are alligators and snakes in the surrounding area." Luckily, no one had an encounter before the launch.
what a memories... thank you sir. your comment smell 80's when I was elementry shool entry boy. we all class mates have dream about space shutle pilot.
A reporter asked Cdr John Young a couple of days before this launch, “Are you nervous?” Cdr Young said, “Young man, if you’re not nervous, you don't know what's going on.” I’ve never forgotten that, and love Cdr Young’s brand of common sense. 🇺🇸
+ukguy Because the Shuttle represented GROSS government intervention and the ruining a good idea to fund a $1.4 billion per launch monstrosity. They literally would've saved money continuing to launch the Saturn V.
That’s what I noticed almost immediately. Frank Reynolds and Cernan cheering like fans at a football game. Openly. Proudly. All about America. Saw this as a kid, and miss THAT America that is already long gone.
Not just patriotism (though with Cold War in full swing, that was a big part of it), but I think the “go baby!” emotion here is all about a healthy pride in human achievement. Like many others have commented, this gave me goosebumps and a tear or two. Amazing.
Th3uNn3rV3d Even the reporters sounded patriotic that day...you'd probably not be able to catch one dead being patriotic these days, except maybe at Fox News, and then they'd be accused of doing nothing but spewing propaganda. :/
+Th3uNn3rV3d Onto something that may be cost effective. The space shuttle ended up costing an average of well over three times the cost per kg of payload to orbit compared to some of the more efficient launch systems. It ended up costing 2.5 times as much per kg as the least efficient equivalent russian launch systems.
Chris Johnston it may have wound up costing more, but... in the early 80s and into the early 90s we were the only game in town that had a vehicle to get shit into space.
In March, 1987, I had a job interview at Rocketdyne at the fuel pump division. I got to see the engine test stand and some other exotic stuff. It was the Disneyland of engineering. :-)
I lived on the west coast of Florida, about 170 miles from the cape, and you could see the shuttle go up from there very clearly. When they did a Florida landing, we would often hear 2 sonic booms as the shuttle crossed the coast near my house. I watched dozens of launches from my back yard and every one was an amazing thing, it never got old.
Beautiful, beautiful video! Anyone else LOVE the song "Countdown" by Rush and remember the Mission Control message exchange at the end of the song? So cool to hear all that even more clearly in this video!
I was late for school to watch this. It was the only time I was able to over-rule my parents. I thought I was watching the opening of a window into the future... It was a fantastic step forward.... but we've lost the pace that was expected of us...
Being inside the facility with my telescope for the first launch, watching Young and Crippen walk across the bridge into the shuttle is an experience I'll never forget. Even 9 miles away, once that huge machine turned away from us and pointed its engines in our direction, the feeling in my chest of continuous concussive force was amazing. Outside my house in Orlando, I watched the first night launch from 60 miles away, and sure enough, 5 minutes later I could HEAR it. 60 miles! What an amazing machine.
Sadly the Space Shuttle showed just how backwards the space program has been since the early 70's We went from going to the moon to using a space vehicle that didn't even break earth orbit and used that technology for over 30 years when we should have made it to Mars by now.
It wasn't supposed to break earth orbit. Although the shuttle was in many ways a failure, in terms of cost to productivity. It did what it was supposed to do. I don't think we should go to Mars yet, we aren't ready. Though we could possibly do it now. Sooner isn't always better. Though I hope it happens by 2030.
The shuttle did exactly what it was built for, as a platform and truck. It built the ISS, launched, repaired and retrieved satellites. It launched labs for research, hauled large crews up and back. It had a great download capability as well. Some endeavors are worth it wether they make economic sense or not. Keeping the politics out of it, it was a great machine and a necessary evolutionary step.
because the shuttle wasn't designed to go beyond earth's orbit! It was designed to carry supplies to and from the space station and to service orbiting satellites!
Yes and no. The shuttle was part of a much larger and more ambitious post Apollo space program that was supposed to include a massive space station, a base on the moon, and a Mars landing program. The shuttle was supposed to build the station from which deep space missions would be staged, and would be used to ferry the crews and equipment to the station when it was completed. The Nixon administration cut everything BUT the shuttle, leaving us with a space truck with nothing to haul, at least untill the ISS finally came along.
I was 11 & my amazing teacher Ms Behan arranged for a tiny portable tv to be brought into class so we could watch it. I will never forget what she did & the worlds she opened up to me
The Space Shuttle brought on 30+ years of humans remaining in Low Earth Orbit and counting. I'll take getting the fuck off this rock called a planet if it means your patriotism is deminished, sadly rockets don't run on patriotism.
@@kolar That wasn't my point, obviously. Besides that, you're making a false correlation between patriotism and the lack of progress in space exploration.
I was at the dragon launch in Florida. It was almost identical to this. Everyone lost bob and doug in a cloud and the cheering stopped. Just then, BOOM! Out of the cloud and full burn over the top of thousands of people! Everyone was cheering and chanting USA USA USA! Some were crying, shaking hands with strangers, I even got a hug from the guy next to me who couldn't speak English. In that glint of a moment, it was a triumph for humanity again. Sadly, the country fell apart that day/ night, and the launch was overshadowed. Trust me though, it's still very much there, and alive, the news just didnt cover it like they did the shuttle in 81'.
I love how the sound of the SRBs comes up slowly and then hits all at once. It's such a familiar sound now, after the program's over and done with, but back then it was new and surprising. A lot of the spectators had probably seen and knew what to expect with a Saturn V, but the STS was an entirely different ballgame.
Still remember the buzz with crowds of us at school watching this on tv in UK in 1981. 3.....2.....1...... yeee haaaaaa we have lift off. Still unsettles my guts though when they say "go with throttle up" after Challenger in 1986 though.
when I hear the "go with throttle up" from the pilot I always get a pit in my stomach because thats when it blew up. I remember watching it as a kid 8yrs old, being very sad.
Way to go yanks!! I'm from Argentina but I have to tell you, it makes me proud to watch such a great endeavour being carried out by humanity. As we humans can be the source of great pain and damage, we also can be a light of hope in the darkness. This is what a leading nation should do. Not war, not oppression. This is what the world want to see from you guys. I will be more than proud to be lead by this kind of country, constantly pushing the boundaries. Please, think about it...
I remember watching this on a Sunday, April 12th 1981 with my entire family. My father was a Chief Warrant Officer working on the Hawk missile system at that time. We had a dozen Officers over at our home watching this great American achievement.
Why? You're proud of the lines in which you were born? you have more reason to be proud of a shit you took, seeing as how you put a little fucking effort into it.
+Brando Phoenix Pride and embracing the unknown. Having the balls and the courage to tackle curiosity and expanding our scientific endeavours. One achievement after the next with out fear, doing things because they're hard. I'm Canadian, yet still this (and the Apollo 11 launch) get me every time.
I remember that day and how proud I was. I loved what the announcer said, “American thunder in the sky!” I miss that kind of pride we used to have. I wish my teenage son could feel the kind of pride I had in my country at his age.
I remember watching this live on TV when I was 9 years old. I remember going outside to see if I could see it from where I lived several minutes after it launced. . . I lived in Reno, NV. ;-)
Having just watched the SpaceX launch, I thought I'd come and see this for a nostalgia binge. :) I remember watching this with my parents in the UK when I was seven years old.
Columbia wasnt modified to dock with the the ISS was because of its weight,it was the heaviest orbiter it couldnt move some of the heavy ISS parts as the rest of the fleet could.The SLW tank project was major as was all the other weight reduction tasks for ISS. Endeavour was the lightest(151,205lbs)then Atlantis(151,315lbs) Discovery(151,419lbs),Challenger(155,400lbs) Columbia.(158,289lbs)weights minus engines. After the HST servicing and STS 107,Columbia wasnt scheduled to be used much at all
I have never been to a launch. But I ate them up on TV. For this particular mission, I was among the hundreds of thousands of people at Edwards to see Columbia land. One of my most cherished memories.
I hotwired my high school's computer to get to the outside antenna to watch this launch (which was on my birthday, by the way!). No nun was gonna stop me from seeing the the vehicle of my dreams take off. It was worth the three days of detention I got for it. Thanks for posting the video and bring back one of my favorite high school memories.
Great post! Loved every second of it... pre-launch, the build up to launch, the dramatics, the crowd, the launch itself... and I especially enjoyed hearing people's reaction (on/off air) to each little goal met during the climb. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! (I think I was 12 when I saw this live in school).
Man, that shot of Columbia clearing the tower, out of the smoke was stunning! Columbia disintegrated on re-entry on my wedding day, it’s what we came home to after the ceremony. Seeing it’s birth here is quite moving.
I remember being convinced they were wrong and the thing would tip over shuttle first because it isn't balanced. But I didn't know the shuttle's engines would be used on liftoff. I still don't know how the structure could free stand on its own before launch. To see that thing go up, it's an amazing sight. That KRAAWWWW sound from the engines before it lifts off - intimidating.
Renato Lopez Yeah, but that's not even really ours. SpaceX and Elon Musk are a privately-owned conglomerate; NASA was an American, state-funded institution. The whole point of the Space Shuttle was to just bring different hardware into Earth orbit, like satellites and the components for space stations, Hubble repairs, etc, etc. Most of the scientific stuff was carried out as a secondary task, because things like satellites were far more of a priority in those days. SpaceX is all about expanding mankind's footprint to Mars and the continued development of sustainability and energy efficiency.
Rusty*\m/*Angel we have many things to be proud, one is our economy is doing spectacular under the trump administration. We will be going to the moon in a few years as well.
I was 13 years old and my parents knew how much I followed the space program, and even today I never miss a launch, they let me stay home and miss a day at school to watch this. Wow this was 39 years ago.
Down in the VIP section.. actually in Red Sector A stood the members of Rush, Geddy Alex and Neil who had come to witness the first launch. Indeed their song ‘Countdown’ from the 1982 album Signals, contains actual audio snippets from this broadcast.
and the most expensive and the least safe... people who disliked this probably took these into consideration, especially this first lauch was a gambling
It has nothing to do with pride, it has everything todo with funding. No amount of pride would have landed the US on the moon if they didn't have the funding to pack up Apollo; if we allotted what we do today for NASA back then, Apollo would have been a no-go.
10 лет назад
Furthermore, even though I think the moon landings were spectacular, how much practical good did they do? It's like people pining to put a man on Mars. Given the cost of such a mission, it's simply not worth it with current technology when an automated rover can do the job for a fraction of the cost. I realize an actual man walking on another planet is a great symbolic achievement but nothing of value is really accomplished by putting a man on Mars just for the sake of doing so.
That is 100% correct. It was when Americans didn't wave EBT cards proudly, or wear pajamas to Walmart or have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs. We were a proud people but that pride has gone by the wayside. Now I hate to bring up politics but when the First Lady says "for the first time in my life I'm proud of my country" that is telling.
Haven't watched this since it was broadcast live in '81. I think it was early afternoon in the UK and the teacher of whatever class I was in asked if anyone was interested in seeing it. He then wheeled in one of the school's portable TVs and we watched this instead of doing school work.
John Young was the first human being to fly five times in to space and was one of just seven Apollo-era (including Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz) astronauts to fly on the shuttle. The others were Jack Lousma, Owen Garriott, Joe Kerwin, Paul Weitz, Vance Brand, and Young's Apollo 16 crewmate, Ken Mattingly.
Yes, turns out the paint added a lot of unnecessary weight. A gentleman my family knew by the name of John Ondercin who worked at NASA recommended they cease painting the fuel tank to reduce weight and save fuel. After an "oh-yeah" moment, John was given an award for his common-sense insight.
I actually liked the orange better... and not painting saved them millions of dollars per launch (or the ability to carry 600 give or take more lbs of cargo).
The reason why they stopped painting the tank was to save weight but they did not realize that the paint would hold the foam in place let alone the return to launch site abort is dangerous because of the speed and the small runway the shuttle would end up in the swamp let alone the ejection seats would be no good duration nag the first part of the launch
@stabbingmeagain Commander of STS-1 John Young stated in an interview that when the SRB's ignited, they produced a shock-wave that induced an unintended deflection of the main tail body flap. This was to such a degree that had they been aware of the damage at the time, thet would have been required to eject from the shuttle losing Columbia, and possibly both he and STS-1 pilot Robert Crippen not surviving the ejection. Terrifying! But Young just grinned about it, as you might expect...
@Exceller8 Oh I sincerely apologise...I thought that the OP was hinting at a feminazi/SWJ like environment in todays society, and I was stating that in this instance, the point isnt relevant because women astronauts have been on the program for years.
@@whiteeaglewarrior Hes not saying there havent been female astronauts for years, hes saying todays views on all male anything is frowned upon by butt hurt sexist females.
Hello America, Rest Of The World here. We despise your foreign policy, roll our eyes at your over-the-top, misguided patriotism and laugh when you stumble but damn, when you do things like this, we're proud to share a planet with you. Thanks for some wonderful moments.
Space Shuttle Launches with the unfortunate exceptions of Challenger and Colombia have become routine overtime. A generation far removed from the moon mission needs something to inspire them again Orion will do just that.
Jesse Lockhart Columbia's launch was fine it was coming back where the problem was. Yes the foam damaging the tiles at launch was the cause but the launch on it's own was not a failure.
The Colombia and and Challenger missions were unfortunate because astronauts lost their lives. The overall shuttle program wasn't a failure, it just lost its luster overtime.
+Randy Sager And it was a launch problem that caused the fatal damage. Vibrations and air flow during the initial phases of the launch caused the foam to break off.
I seeing this when I was 11 years old. Back then and no one knew what to think of this new spacecraft that launched like a rocket, orbited like a satellite and landed like an airplane. We were all on pins and needles waiting to find out if this new experiment would work. We were thrilled when it did. Thanks for posting!
That's awesome. I used to live in Mulberry, FL, which is 30 east of Tampa, and I got to see several shuttles go up. Mulberry was probably about 120 miles from the Cape, but you could still see the shuttle. I the first shuttle I got to witness live was Space Shuttle Discovery in 1988. I was in 9th grade and the entire school got to go to the bleachers and watch it. Our bleachers faced east, so it was the perfect seat. It was first shuttle that had been launched since the challenger disaster. Then in 89 or 90 I got to witness a night launch, that was breath taking. It lite up the entire night sky.
Looks like a lot of folks are reminiscing. I remember seeing STS-3 going up in person as a teenager, and brought my kids down to see STS-132 last year. I had chills like I've never experienced in my life watching today's final launch.
I was a teenager when this amazing event took place. I remember watching it on TV and I grabbed my cassette recorder and threw it up to my TV and recorded what I could. I still have the tape. How awesome was this???
Solid rocket boosters were a mistake. At the time they were thought to be cheaper than the more powerful liquid fueled counterpart but it turned out not to the case. SRB's caused the extreme vibrations, shaking and rough ride until SRB SEP. SRB's at at least partly (if not all) responsible for the foam getting shaken on Columbia killing all, and fully responsible for Challenger killing all. SRB's cannot be turned off once started.
As a kid, I watched every Saturn V launch on TV. I was 8, when Apollo 11 was launched. My next door neighbor in 1969 was a laid off Rocketdyne rocket engineer who had worked on pitch control rockets for the Command Modules. In 1973, at age 12, I got to see the Skylab I Saturn V on the launchpad, two weeks before launch. I have a picture of me, my mom and two sisters with Skylab in the background. That was the last Saturn V ever launched. In 1976, I followed the Viking Missions landing on Mars. For a whole day, everyone was excited at the "Blue sky on Mars!", (the first picture sent back from the surface of Mars), then they noticed that the American flag painted on the lander looked odd. They adjusted the flag's colors, then realized that Mars actually has a reddish-pink sky. In July, 1985, as a young engineer, I had a job interview with Morton-Thiokol (the maker of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters). The interviewer went on an on about their massive test stand to test the rockets laying sideways. I asked him why they didn't just pour a concrete slab and test fire the rocket upside down. The interview kind of went downhill from there. I didn't get the job. Six months later, the Challenger blew up. A Congressional investigation concluded that the rockets needed to be tested vertically (as in upside down), and not on their side. Their sideways testing was unrealistic, at the least. They didn't want a smartass 24 year old engineer asking "uncomfortable questions", I guess. In March, 1987, I had a job interview at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, CA. The interview was with the Main Engine Fuel Pump Division. I didn't get the job, but got a tour of the engine test fire stand, where they had tested Space Shuttle engines the night before. The engine fuel pump turbine produced 17,000 Hp! I got to hold a $70,000 fuel pump turbine wheel. Each turbine blade produced 750 Hp. I've seen a lot! The future is SPACEX and companies like them (my opinion).
Would you agree . . . the typical US citizen is so focused on her/his-self & her/his ipad/iphone/etc., so happy in ignorance of math, science, engineering, & tech from a doer/creative perspective, so interested instead in pop personalities, reality tv, and other mind/intellect-killing aspects of life - that there are so few resources (ie smart minds) in the general population who've elected the worst representatives . . . add it all up to find the bottom line: WE COULDN'T BE A LEADER IN ANY TRULY FORWARD/UPWARD WAY EVEN IF THE DESIRE EXISTED. Yes, there are smart people at Google, Silicon Valley, etc., but what is really being accomplished? It's all focused on creating & selling tech to idiot consumers who's data is being collected & analyzed for the generation of ad revenues. People are drunk on time-wasting tech. Who's designing AI? REAL & solid achievements such as Moon exploration, landing on and mining asteroids, etc.? Not many. Not many at all. I've lost my hopes for America as a true leader in substantive human advancements. The technology in our lives is STUPID crap. Example: ask anyone this simple math question: What is 10 divided by 1/2 ? 95+++% of people get it wrong, even given several attempts. Peace to you. =-/
Matt, I know a lot of things that most folks do not, which is now the exact reason why my beliefs have changed etc. . . now, what I can tell you for certain is this... When you go on vacation and you see the sites you wanted to see, you've done all you can do, do you feel the strong urge to keep going back? It's the same with them and space. My point is this, NASA is NOT a private / public agent. They ARE governed by other entities. Things that I know, and believe now, are that NASA, as well as a select few of other people, know SO MUCH MORE about the solar system and universe than we will ever know. They know way more about Mars than what they're telling us, way more about the moon even. I know they are hiding tons of secrets from us and pretty much everything you see Nasa doing today isn't exactly what they're telling us. There are very good, and very real reasons why we do not go back to the moon (by man), one of the reasons being that they already know about the moon and what it has to offer. We have a military presence in space. It has been there a while and is growing exponentially. Why? Because of the things they discovered in the last 40 years. Essentially, my answer to you is this, as far as "We the people" go... we have no business being in space. We're not ready. We know it, "they" know it... but the elitest in this world DO NOT know it... They do not waste billions of money now to explore as much as we used to, simply because they now know the things they wanted to know prior.
My grandma was bugging me to get ready for church. We'll be late. I said Grandma I am not leaving till I see this launch. She sputtered and fussed, she didn't drive. I saw it lift off and we still made it in plenty of time.
Well, I really don't feel that God is all that ridged. How can He be? He made the Platypus. God, to me, is laid back and has a wonderful sense of humor!
Me too. I was baptized that morning. The church bus was outside waiting on me LOL.
I missed church to see Apollo 16 take off.
I told Charlie Duke about it in 2019, and he said "You DID?!"
He got a little chuckle out of that.
You have your priorities straight. Good man
This flight was supposed to go on a Friday morning but was first delayed and then postponed because of a computer glitch. I was a senior in high school and quietly furious that none of the teachers at school at a tv on.
But because of that glitch, the second attempt happened two days later on a Sunday morning. I was at home, in front of the tv with my family. When Columbia jumped off the pad, the seven of us jumped up and cheered.
Yes I missed the bus on that Friday to see the launch. Sat i turned 10. Sunday saw the launch. Very special weekend.
Fate would have it the delay caused the launch to be on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first man in space mission.
I remember watching this at school too and it was scrubbed. Wound up over sleeping during the launch on Sunday and running up to the TV and hearing "the shuttle is now over the Indian Ocean" ... I threw a fit. I missed it. Crying. Waking my dad up and he slapped me so hard I stopped crying! Great times.
airdriver I was 11 still remember watching it on the telly
Right. In Sweden it was about 1300 o´clock. I saw it on TV. Did see the first one also, the one that got postponed. This was BIG. Not as big as the moon landning but second to it.
Whatever we say about USA, we got to admit that they helped humanity to expand our knowledge of the Universe... Thank you :)
No problem. Send down some Tim Horton's and we'll consider it an even trade. :-)
Douglas Muth
Hum I'm from Quebec... so we can send you some good "poutine" :)
Douglas Muth Well, I'm from Brazil, we can send you some metals to make the spacecrafts...
I'm from Québec, we builded the landing legs of the L.E.M. ;)
I don't think you understood my message there... I'm from Québec. A place where we criticize USA exactly for the reasons you wrote. I agree with you on this.
Yeah, it's a ugly nation on various points (wars, inequality, lack of individual privacy, etc), but we cannot take away the fact that US space exploration helped us to expand our knowledge of the universe!
RIP, Captain Young. You were a true hero and will be missed.
I was there at the time.
We slept overnight in an outside area at KSC because we knew someone with VIP passes.
All night long the loudspeakers kept going off with "Stay close to this area, because there are alligators and snakes in the surrounding area."
Luckily, no one had an encounter before the launch.
K
what a memories... thank you sir. your comment smell 80's when I was elementry shool entry boy. we all class mates have dream about space shutle pilot.
lol I bet they got sarced when the main Engine started
A reporter asked Cdr John Young a couple of days before this launch, “Are you nervous?” Cdr Young said, “Young man, if you’re not nervous, you don't know what's going on.” I’ve never forgotten that, and love Cdr Young’s brand of common sense. 🇺🇸
Wow this was so cool to watch. I almost teared up. The shuttle / orbiter was so badass...
"Fly like an eagle!" perfect comment.
Frank Reynolds was the best.
awesome
I thought it was pretty silly. And eagles are found all over the world. There is no such thing as an American eagle.
How can anyone possibly dislike this?
+ukguy fucking commies
A lot of people could dislike this video, the soviets, Putin, the North Koreans who are especially mad that they can't launch rockets
+stefano Mate you really think the North Koreans can get onto the internet? They don't have youtube and internet in North Korea
+stefano Don't forget George Soros & Bill deBlasio.
+ukguy Because the Shuttle represented GROSS government intervention and the ruining a good idea to fund a $1.4 billion per launch monstrosity. They literally would've saved money continuing to launch the Saturn V.
Man - even TV reporters couldn't help but be patriotic in the Eighties.
Unlike today when the media is nothing but post modern Marxist globalist America hating scum.
@@kevint6757 I bet you're very smart and stable.
That’s what I noticed almost immediately. Frank Reynolds and Cernan cheering like fans at a football game. Openly. Proudly. All about America.
Saw this as a kid, and miss THAT America that is already long gone.
cold war was still on. still remember that first launch of STS-1. it was very exciting.
Not just patriotism (though with Cold War in full swing, that was a big part of it), but I think the “go baby!” emotion here is all about a healthy pride in human achievement. Like many others have commented, this gave me goosebumps and a tear or two. Amazing.
I love how excited the truly were watching the shuttle lift off for the very first time. So sad it ended.
Th3uNn3rV3d Even the reporters sounded patriotic that day...you'd probably not be able to catch one dead being patriotic these days, except maybe at Fox News, and then they'd be accused of doing nothing but spewing propaganda. :/
Th3uNn3rV3d Just on to something better.
+Th3uNn3rV3d Onto something that may be cost effective. The space shuttle ended up costing an average of well over three times the cost per kg of payload to orbit compared to some of the more efficient launch systems. It ended up costing 2.5 times as much per kg as the least efficient equivalent russian launch systems.
***** "...expendable RS-25s and...space shuttle SRBs"....you mean like the Space Launch System is going to have? ;)
Chris Johnston it may have wound up costing more, but... in the early 80s and into the early 90s we were the only game in town that had a vehicle to get shit into space.
38 years later this was still a moving experience to see.
In March, 1987, I had a job interview at Rocketdyne at the fuel pump division. I got to see the engine test stand and some other exotic stuff. It was the Disneyland of engineering. :-)
Woah that's like a dream
It was. :-)
Steve Arizona did you work for Rocketdyne?
Love this! Gene Cernan's excitement was fantastic. I'd forgotten how he was almost a cheerleader that morning.
Totally agree. He made this clip a 15 out of 10. Really great emotion.
I lived on the west coast of Florida, about 170 miles from the cape, and you could see the shuttle go up from there very clearly. When they did a Florida landing, we would often hear 2 sonic booms as the shuttle crossed the coast near my house. I watched dozens of launches from my back yard and every one was an amazing thing, it never got old.
You could see it from Tampa Bay,fireball rapidly ascending.....
@@andrewbrown2888 When they were landing at KSC we could hear the sonic booms from Pasco county, just north of Tampa.
Such an admirable thing.... just shows the ingenuity of the human spirit and its resolve.
I second that emotion.
@ungratefulmetalpansy shut your mouth bitch.
Beautiful, beautiful video! Anyone else LOVE the song "Countdown" by Rush and remember the Mission Control message exchange at the end of the song? So cool to hear all that even more clearly in this video!
I was fifteen and watched this on a Sunday morning live in England with my late Grandmother .......... wonderful memories.
I was late for school to watch this. It was the only time I was able to over-rule my parents. I thought I was watching the opening of a window into the future...
It was a fantastic step forward.... but we've lost the pace that was expected of us...
I remember watching this before school too...but I think both of our memories are off. April 12, 1981 was a Sunday.
My mom wasn’t even born lmao
@@Guilherme_magalhaes1021 same my mom was born in august 1981
I was born August of 81, I've loved the shuttle for as long as I can remember.
I was in kindergarten in April of 1981. I remember watching this with my dad.
Being inside the facility with my telescope for the first launch, watching Young and Crippen walk across the bridge into the shuttle is an experience I'll never forget. Even 9 miles away, once that huge machine turned away from us and pointed its engines in our direction, the feeling in my chest of continuous concussive force was amazing.
Outside my house in Orlando, I watched the first night launch from 60 miles away, and sure enough, 5 minutes later I could HEAR it. 60 miles! What an amazing machine.
Sadly the Space Shuttle showed just how backwards the space program has been since the early 70's We went from going to the moon to using a space vehicle that didn't even break earth orbit and used that technology for over 30 years when we should have made it to Mars by now.
It wasn't supposed to break earth orbit. Although the shuttle was in many ways a failure, in terms of cost to productivity. It did what it was supposed to do. I don't think we should go to Mars yet, we aren't ready. Though we could possibly do it now. Sooner isn't always better. Though I hope it happens by 2030.
The shuttle did exactly what it was built for, as a platform and truck. It built the ISS, launched, repaired and retrieved satellites. It launched labs for research, hauled large crews up and back. It had a great download capability as well. Some endeavors are worth it wether they make economic sense or not. Keeping the politics out of it, it was a great machine and a necessary evolutionary step.
because the shuttle wasn't designed to go beyond earth's orbit! It was designed to carry supplies to and from the space station and to service orbiting satellites!
Yes and no. The shuttle was part of a much larger and more ambitious post Apollo space program that was supposed to include a massive space station, a base on the moon, and a Mars landing program. The shuttle was supposed to build the station from which deep space missions would be staged, and would be used to ferry the crews and equipment to the station when it was completed.
The Nixon administration cut everything BUT the shuttle, leaving us with a space truck with nothing to haul, at least untill the ISS finally came along.
Going to Mars will be a difficult thing to do. And that does not count trying to fund the program. I would like to see it happen also.
It was so cool to watch Columbia as a 10 year old Canadian kid.
I missed watching this on TV. Too busy watching it in person. One of the most awesome events of my life!
I was 11 & my amazing teacher Ms Behan arranged for a tiny portable tv to be brought into class so we could watch it. I will never forget what she did & the worlds she opened up to me
Still giving me chills so many years later. Awesome!!!!
wow just imagine how suprised those people where due to the speed, force, brightness, and loud those engines where
The patriotism was was palpable. Loved it. We need this kind of patriotism today.
The Space Shuttle brought on 30+ years of humans remaining in Low Earth Orbit and counting. I'll take getting the fuck off this rock called a planet if it means your patriotism is deminished, sadly rockets don't run on patriotism.
@@kolar That wasn't my point, obviously. Besides that, you're making a false correlation between patriotism and the lack of progress in space exploration.
I was at the dragon launch in Florida. It was almost identical to this. Everyone lost bob and doug in a cloud and the cheering stopped. Just then, BOOM! Out of the cloud and full burn over the top of thousands of people! Everyone was cheering and chanting USA USA USA! Some were crying, shaking hands with strangers, I even got a hug from the guy next to me who couldn't speak English. In that glint of a moment, it was a triumph for humanity again. Sadly, the country fell apart that day/ night, and the launch was overshadowed. Trust me though, it's still very much there, and alive, the news just didnt cover it like they did the shuttle in 81'.
I was 8 years old when I saw this on TV with my dad. Great memories 80's was indeed a great decade.
I love how the sound of the SRBs comes up slowly and then hits all at once. It's such a familiar sound now, after the program's over and done with, but back then it was new and surprising. A lot of the spectators had probably seen and knew what to expect with a Saturn V, but the STS was an entirely different ballgame.
I remember this; I was 5 years old and knew how special this was. I think my mom kept me home from school that day, if I'm not mistaken.
Damn, brought tears to my eyes. Love to hear the genuine excitement of the announcers. What a great day.
I remembered watching this from Orlando and was an amazing view like you never seen before.
Still remember the buzz with crowds of us at school watching this on tv in UK in 1981. 3.....2.....1...... yeee haaaaaa we have lift off.
Still unsettles my guts though when they say "go with throttle up" after Challenger in 1986 though.
when I hear the "go with throttle up" from the pilot I always get a pit in my stomach because thats when it blew up. I remember watching it as a kid 8yrs old, being very sad.
davidca96 when ever my dad here’s the name “roger” he I stares blankly because of the last words of the Columbia crew “roger uh-buh-“
Damn brought tears to my eyes! I was around 7 years old when this took place. Back then shuttle launches were such a big event.
I was 11 years old... and the entire school watched it on tvs brought into the classrooms.
Mike Sanders Me too! I was thinking about where I was at school too. Sixth grade.
Same, 11 years old and remember being called a nerd for liking that kind of stuff. Lol.
This was launched on April 12th, 1981. It was a Sunday.
@@vabeachkevin 2 days after my 4th Birthday.
Way to go yanks!! I'm from Argentina but I have to tell you, it makes me proud to watch such a great endeavour being carried out by humanity. As we humans can be the source of great pain and damage, we also can be a light of hope in the darkness. This is what a leading nation should do. Not war, not oppression. This is what the world want to see from you guys. I will be more than proud to be lead by this kind of country, constantly pushing the boundaries.
Please, think about it...
This magic day when super science mingles with the bright stuff of dreams.
I was thinking the VERY same thing. Too bad some people just want to make nasty comments and try to spoil this event.
Clicked on this video just to find this comment
And those fuckers got to see it too
Technology high....on the leading edge of life
Excitment so thick, you could cut it with a knife ! Saw this live on TV, Listened to the song so many times, watching again on youtube = Goosebumps
I remember watching this on a Sunday, April 12th 1981 with my entire family. My father was a Chief Warrant Officer working on the Hawk missile system at that time. We had a dozen Officers over at our home watching this great American achievement.
Americans had so much PRIDE back then. Be nice to get some of that back.
+bigdog1 Yeah sorry you can't take criticism.
Why? You're proud of the lines in which you were born? you have more reason to be proud of a shit you took, seeing as how you put a little fucking effort into it.
+bigdog1 The truth hurts.
+Brando Phoenix Pride and embracing the unknown. Having the balls and the courage to tackle curiosity and expanding our scientific endeavours. One achievement after the next with out fear, doing things because they're hard. I'm Canadian, yet still this (and the Apollo 11 launch) get me every time.
+Callmesir_ Sorry you can't handle the truth about Ovomit.
Certainly one of the proudest achievements of our lifetime.
I remember that day and how proud I was. I loved what the announcer said, “American thunder in the sky!” I miss that kind of pride we used to have. I wish my teenage son could feel the kind of pride I had in my country at his age.
I remember watching this live on TV when I was 9 years old. I remember going outside to see if I could see it from where I lived several minutes after it launced. . . I lived in Reno, NV. ;-)
R.I.P columbia. We still miss you
Queen Mother of the fleet.
Having just watched the SpaceX launch, I thought I'd come and see this for a nostalgia binge. :) I remember watching this with my parents in the UK when I was seven years old.
When the country did things you where proud of..
Now it’s overrun by Nazis and ignoramuses
Columbia wasnt modified to dock with the the ISS was because of its weight,it was the heaviest orbiter it couldnt move some of the heavy ISS parts as the rest of the fleet could.The SLW tank project was major as was all the other weight reduction tasks for ISS. Endeavour was the lightest(151,205lbs)then Atlantis(151,315lbs) Discovery(151,419lbs),Challenger(155,400lbs) Columbia.(158,289lbs)weights minus engines. After the HST servicing and STS 107,Columbia wasnt scheduled to be used much at all
Rest in peace, Gene Cernan, commander, Apollo 17.
I have never been to a launch. But I ate them up on TV. For this particular mission, I was among the hundreds of thousands of people at Edwards to see Columbia land. One of my most cherished memories.
I was 14, and the world stopped so we could watch this live on UK tv...
Yes I remember it was on ITN when I was 3 in 1981
I hotwired my high school's computer to get to the outside antenna to watch this launch (which was on my birthday, by the way!). No nun was gonna stop me from seeing the the vehicle of my dreams take off. It was worth the three days of detention I got for it. Thanks for posting the video and bring back one of my favorite high school memories.
Just another moment that changed Humanity entirely ... :)
Great post! Loved every second of it... pre-launch, the build up to launch, the dramatics, the crowd, the launch itself... and I especially enjoyed hearing people's reaction (on/off air) to each little goal met during the climb. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! (I think I was 12 when I saw this live in school).
Video: Posted 10 years ago. RUclips: Yes yes now would be a great time to put this in recommended.
ikr
Man, that shot of Columbia clearing the tower, out of the smoke was stunning! Columbia disintegrated on re-entry on my wedding day, it’s what we came home to after the ceremony. Seeing it’s birth here is quite moving.
I remember being convinced they were wrong and the thing would tip over shuttle first because it isn't balanced. But I didn't know the shuttle's engines would be used on liftoff. I still don't know how the structure could free stand on its own before launch. To see that thing go up, it's an amazing sight. That KRAAWWWW sound from the engines before it lifts off - intimidating.
I love listening to Cernan. You can so hear his excitement, the kind only an astronaut watching a new vehicle can have.
Cernan was a classy guy. My favorite astronaut.
RIP Gene Cernan, you can feel the excitement in his voice.
Larry Greene Yes, RIP Captain Cernan.
Anno 81 il primo lancio dello space shuttle questo momento è stato stupendo
I was 10 years old and watched this live on ABC, just as you see it here. Great thanks for posting this.
Back when America had something to be proud of.
I mean we have SpaceX now. So yes and no.
They have their constitution still but they too do suffer from cultural marxism. That is sad.
Renato Lopez Yeah, but that's not even really ours. SpaceX and Elon Musk are a privately-owned conglomerate; NASA was an American, state-funded institution. The whole point of the Space Shuttle was to just bring different hardware into Earth orbit, like satellites and the components for space stations, Hubble repairs, etc, etc. Most of the scientific stuff was carried out as a secondary task, because things like satellites were far more of a priority in those days. SpaceX is all about expanding mankind's footprint to Mars and the continued development of sustainability and energy efficiency.
Rusty*\m/*Angel we have many things to be proud, one is our economy is doing spectacular under the trump administration. We will be going to the moon in a few years as well.
Brit here. I feel exactly the same way about my country. What a mess we're all in.
I was 13 years old and my parents knew how much I followed the space program, and even today I never miss a launch, they let me stay home and miss a day at school to watch this. Wow this was 39 years ago.
"It seems as if NASA is one giant acronym"
Facepalm!!
I saw a night launch in January 1996 when I was in Florida. Freakin amazing, it lit the sky up like the sunrise.
7:56
Rush - Countdown
Thank you for mentioning that! I have that album (Signals - 1982) and went back to listen to it just because of that comment. 🤘
Down in the VIP section.. actually in Red Sector A stood the members of Rush, Geddy Alex and Neil who had come to witness the first launch. Indeed their song ‘Countdown’ from the 1982 album Signals, contains actual audio snippets from this broadcast.
RIP Neil Peart. A great drummer, and a great man.
The courage of these astronauts defies description
Unlike all other manned missions, they never tested the shuttle with a flight before putting people in it. Balls of steel.
I remember recording this as a kid by holding a tape recorder up to the speaker of my TV. :)
John Young and Bob Crippen had big, brass ones to fly this thing untested on its first go.
Damn right. It's a small miracle they survived.
My Dad Fired a Rocket that year
I was Born
this was one of the best and most majestic titans we have ever built and flown
and the most expensive and the least safe... people who disliked this probably took these into consideration, especially this first lauch was a gambling
@@fixpontt ok
"It's like NASA is one big acronym!" I had to laugh at the irony of that.
"We had acronyms for acronyms."
I so remember watching this with my dad on tv....thank u for the great memories. ..
This happened when Americans were still thankful and proud to be Americans.
Now we have a president and the people who elected him who say, "God Damn America!"
It has nothing to do with pride, it has everything todo with funding. No amount of pride would have landed the US on the moon if they didn't have the funding to pack up Apollo; if we allotted what we do today for NASA back then, Apollo would have been a no-go.
Furthermore, even though I think the moon landings were spectacular, how much practical good did they do? It's like people pining to put a man on Mars. Given the cost of such a mission, it's simply not worth it with current technology when an automated rover can do the job for a fraction of the cost. I realize an actual man walking on another planet is a great symbolic achievement but nothing of value is really accomplished by putting a man on Mars just for the sake of doing so.
That is 100% correct. It was when Americans didn't wave EBT cards proudly, or wear pajamas to Walmart or have to compete with illegal immigrants for jobs. We were a proud people but that pride has gone by the wayside. Now I hate to bring up politics but when the First Lady says "for the first time in my life I'm proud of my country" that is telling.
wow, some great network voices from the past... grew up watching these launches when it seemed all so new.
John Young, RIP, you were one of the most talented and experienced astronauts to ever live.
Haven't watched this since it was broadcast live in '81.
I think it was early afternoon in the UK and the teacher of whatever class I was in asked if anyone was interested in seeing it. He then wheeled in one of the school's portable TVs and we watched this instead of doing school work.
tony sansom that's so cool
tony sansom The launch was on a Sunday early morning Eastern Standard Time.
Dale Thelander Wow, so it was! Then it must have been a re-showing that they let us watch. That seems less likely though. Odd!
John Young has _The Right Stuff_ !
John Young was the first human being to fly five times in to space and was one of just seven Apollo-era (including Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz) astronauts to fly on the shuttle. The others were Jack Lousma, Owen Garriott, Joe Kerwin, Paul Weitz, Vance Brand, and Young's Apollo 16 crewmate, Ken Mattingly.
Rest in peace, John Young
I had just graduated and working in St. louis and couldn't watch. Everyone I asked if they'd seen it had huge smiles on their faces.
That all-white central tank was sexy and far better looking than the brown/orange one. I know it is because of reasons, but still :/
I like the orange external tank better. They stopped painting it white because they realized they didn't need to.
Yes, turns out the paint added a lot of unnecessary weight. A gentleman my family knew by the name of John Ondercin who worked at NASA recommended they cease painting the fuel tank to reduce weight and save fuel. After an "oh-yeah" moment, John was given an award for his common-sense insight.
I actually liked the orange better... and not painting saved them millions of dollars per launch (or the ability to carry 600 give or take more lbs of cargo).
The reason why they stopped painting the tank was to save weight but they did not realize that the paint would hold the foam in place let alone the return to launch site abort is dangerous because of the speed and the small runway the shuttle would end up in the swamp let alone the ejection seats would be no good duration nag the first part of the launch
That's racist.
Watched this when I was 12 years old before church on Sunday. Made you proud to be an American.
At this time a was only 9 but I still remember those images very good
Well*. You remember them "well".
+Luke Freeman yep
All very well & good ;-)
I was nine as well. My brother told me about this, and I got crazy about it. I never changed!
I remember this well. It was a Sunday morning. This tape has faded, as live, the colors were so much more vivid and sharp. It was spectacular.
I love how Rick Springfield makes a cameo behind Lynn ......possibly the first photo bomb ever ???😆
First known photobombing, 1853.
www.vox.com/2015/9/25/9397733/first-photobomb
@stabbingmeagain Commander of STS-1 John Young stated in an interview that when the SRB's ignited, they produced a shock-wave that induced an unintended deflection of the main tail body flap. This was to such a degree that had they been aware of the damage at the time, thet would have been required to eject from the shuttle losing Columbia, and possibly both he and STS-1 pilot Robert Crippen not surviving the ejection. Terrifying! But Young just grinned about it, as you might expect...
1981 - look at it go, science! History!
2019+ - is there a woman on that flight? Better not be all white dudes.
theres been women astronauts for years
@Exceller8 Oh I sincerely apologise...I thought that the OP was hinting at a feminazi/SWJ like environment in todays society, and I was stating that in this instance, the point isnt relevant because women astronauts have been on the program for years.
@@whiteeaglewarrior Hes not saying there havent been female astronauts for years, hes saying todays views on all male anything is frowned upon by butt hurt sexist females.
You're a barrel of laughs aren't you.
Hello America, Rest Of The World here.
We despise your foreign policy, roll our eyes at your over-the-top, misguided patriotism and laugh when you stumble but damn, when you do things like this, we're proud to share a planet with you. Thanks for some wonderful moments.
Space Shuttle Launches with the unfortunate exceptions of Challenger and Colombia have become routine overtime. A generation far removed from the moon mission needs something to inspire them again Orion will do just that.
Jesse Lockhart Columbia's launch was fine it was coming back where the problem was. Yes the foam damaging the tiles at launch was the cause but the launch on it's own was not a failure.
The Colombia and and Challenger missions were unfortunate because astronauts lost their lives. The overall shuttle program wasn't a failure, it just lost its luster overtime.
Randy Sager Yes, and damaged tiles were not the issue either. The foam punched a hole in the wings leading edge which contains not even one tile.
Oy duh thank you. I'm not being sarcastic I had an old blond moment.
+Randy Sager And it was a launch problem that caused the fatal damage. Vibrations and air flow during the initial phases of the launch caused the foam to break off.
I seeing this when I was 11 years old. Back then and no one knew what to think of this new spacecraft that launched like a rocket, orbited like a satellite and landed like an airplane. We were all on pins and needles waiting to find out if this new experiment would work. We were thrilled when it did. Thanks for posting!
That's awesome. I used to live in Mulberry, FL, which is 30 east of Tampa, and I got to see several shuttles go up. Mulberry was probably about 120 miles from the Cape, but you could still see the shuttle. I the first shuttle I got to witness live was Space Shuttle Discovery in 1988. I was in 9th grade and the entire school got to go to the bleachers and watch it. Our bleachers faced east, so it was the perfect seat. It was first shuttle that had been launched since the challenger disaster. Then in 89 or 90 I got to witness a night launch, that was breath taking. It lite up the entire night sky.
I have pictures from St. Pete of the last launch of Colombia. Not super common with a day launch.
Looks like a lot of folks are reminiscing. I remember seeing STS-3 going up in person as a teenager, and brought my kids down to see STS-132 last year. I had chills like I've never experienced in my life watching today's final launch.
No one wanted to hear RTLS... yet there were people inside NASA that wanted this mission to be an RTLS test.
I was a teenager when this amazing event took place. I remember watching it on TV and I grabbed my cassette recorder and threw it up to my TV and recorded what I could. I still have the tape. How awesome was this???
I miss these days..
Solid rocket boosters were a mistake. At the time they were thought to be cheaper than the more powerful liquid fueled counterpart but it turned out not to the case. SRB's caused the extreme vibrations, shaking and rough ride until SRB SEP. SRB's at at least partly (if not all) responsible for the foam getting shaken on Columbia killing all, and fully responsible for Challenger killing all. SRB's cannot be turned off once started.
Rush-Signals 1982 Countdown
As a kid, I watched every Saturn V launch on TV. I was 8, when Apollo 11 was launched. My next door neighbor in 1969 was a laid off Rocketdyne rocket engineer who had worked on pitch control rockets for the Command Modules.
In 1973, at age 12, I got to see the Skylab I Saturn V on the launchpad, two weeks before launch. I have a picture of me, my mom and two sisters with Skylab in the background. That was the last Saturn V ever launched. In 1976, I followed the Viking Missions landing on Mars. For a whole day, everyone was excited at the "Blue sky on Mars!", (the first picture sent back from the surface of Mars), then they noticed that the American flag painted on the lander looked odd. They adjusted the flag's colors, then realized that Mars actually has a reddish-pink sky.
In July, 1985, as a young engineer, I had a job interview with Morton-Thiokol (the maker of the Space Shuttle solid rocket boosters). The interviewer went on an on about their massive test stand to test the rockets laying sideways. I asked him why they didn't just pour a concrete slab and test fire the rocket upside down. The interview kind of went downhill from there. I didn't get the job. Six months later, the Challenger blew up. A Congressional investigation concluded that the rockets needed to be tested vertically (as in upside down), and not on their side. Their sideways testing was unrealistic, at the least. They didn't want a smartass 24 year old engineer asking "uncomfortable questions", I guess.
In March, 1987, I had a job interview at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, CA. The interview was with the Main Engine Fuel Pump Division. I didn't get the job, but got a tour of the engine test fire stand, where they had tested Space Shuttle engines the night before. The engine fuel pump turbine produced 17,000 Hp! I got to hold a $70,000 fuel pump turbine wheel. Each turbine blade produced 750 Hp. I've seen a lot! The future is SPACEX and companies like them (my opinion).
Man, what happened to our sense of exploration?
Would you agree . . . the typical US citizen is so focused on her/his-self & her/his ipad/iphone/etc., so happy in ignorance of math, science, engineering, & tech from a doer/creative perspective, so interested instead in pop personalities, reality tv, and other mind/intellect-killing aspects of life - that there are so few resources (ie smart minds) in the general population who've elected the worst representatives . . . add it all up to find the bottom line: WE COULDN'T BE A LEADER IN ANY TRULY FORWARD/UPWARD WAY EVEN IF THE DESIRE EXISTED.
Yes, there are smart people at Google, Silicon Valley, etc., but what is really being accomplished? It's all focused on creating & selling tech to idiot consumers who's data is being collected & analyzed for the generation of ad revenues. People are drunk on time-wasting tech. Who's designing AI? REAL & solid achievements such as Moon exploration, landing on and mining asteroids, etc.? Not many. Not many at all.
I've lost my hopes for America as a true leader in substantive human advancements. The technology in our lives is STUPID crap.
Example: ask anyone this simple math question: What is 10 divided by 1/2 ? 95+++% of people get it wrong, even given several attempts. Peace to you. =-/
money and greed is what happened...
Matt, I know a lot of things that most folks do not, which is now the exact reason why my beliefs have changed etc. . . now, what I can tell you for certain is this... When you go on vacation and you see the sites you wanted to see, you've done all you can do, do you feel the strong urge to keep going back? It's the same with them and space.
My point is this, NASA is NOT a private / public agent. They ARE governed by other entities. Things that I know, and believe now, are that NASA, as well as a select few of other people, know SO MUCH MORE about the solar system and universe than we will ever know. They know way more about Mars than what they're telling us, way more about the moon even. I know they are hiding tons of secrets from us and pretty much everything you see Nasa doing today isn't exactly what they're telling us.
There are very good, and very real reasons why we do not go back to the moon (by man), one of the reasons being that they already know about the moon and what it has to offer. We have a military presence in space. It has been there a while and is growing exponentially. Why? Because of the things they discovered in the last 40 years.
Essentially, my answer to you is this, as far as "We the people" go... we have no business being in space. We're not ready. We know it, "they" know it... but the elitest in this world DO NOT know it... They do not waste billions of money now to explore as much as we used to, simply because they now know the things they wanted to know prior.
"Man, what happened to our sense of exploration?"
Some of it is on Mars(rovers), aint it?
I WAS 11 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE FIRST LAUNCHED I RAN ALL THE WAY HOME IN MY LUNCH HOUR TO WATCH GREAT !!!!
Donald Trump, this is how you make America great again.
“This strange assemblage” So true! And also, am I the only one who misses that white ET? It gave such a clean look to the entire stack.
Only flew two missions I believe.
It had an awesome retro 70's look to it that it lost when they switched to orange.
I really liked Frank Reynolds
I can still remember watching this on tv in the UK. RIP to all the Astronauts who gave their lives ❤️❤️