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Ratcat
Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
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20 Years ago today: Columbia Launches
Today is the 20th anniversary of the 1st successful mission of the US Space Shuttle.
Columbia (OV-102) was launched from Pad A in the Launch Complex 39 area at Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981 at 7:00:03 a.m. EST. The launch followed various delays following a number of software timing issues with the 5 onboard computers, who just couldn't seem to agree on something!
John W. Young was the Commander for that mission and Robert L. Crippen pilotted the orbiter. The mission lasted just 2 days, but did prove successful, paaving the way for a further 23 successful flights.
However on 28th January 1986 mission STS 51L catastrophically broke that success record. Just 73 seconds into the flight, Shuttle OV-99, named Challenger, exploded and fell in a million burning piece into the Atlantic ocean. To this day pieces of that orbiter are still washed up, though most of the debris has now been collected by Nasa and analysed to death. 7 were lost, including 1 civilian.
Surprisingly, whilst the successes are enormous, NASA are playing down this event, though when you look behind the scenes it isn't surprising. Budgetry issues and escalating costs of maintaining the shuttle fleet are hounding NASA and a cheaper system is being sort.
Shuttle missions will probaly still be around in 10 years time, and beyond. But as for the future beyond that? Well, many new, abnd cheaper designs have been propsed. Some have even started construction. But even the most promising design, known as VentureStar, still lies in pieces in a factory whilst Lockheed and NASA argue about who is going to pay for the work required to solve various fuel leakage problems with the new design.
At Midday today (BST) I will be remembering watching that first launch on TV. I will also be remembering the 7 crew members of Challenger and the experience of watch them blink out of existance in just a few short seconds.
Francis R. Scobee, Commander
Michael J. Smith, Pilot
Judith A. Resnik, Mission Specialist
Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist
Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialist
Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist
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[ April 12, 2001: Message edited by: RatCat ]
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Apr 12th, 2001 10:08 AM |
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Dim
Creativity
Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Southern California
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Yeah...I remember when the Challenger blew up...man, that was depressing...
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Apr 12th, 2001 11:30 AM |
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Ratcat
Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
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They showed it over and over again for days...
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Apr 12th, 2001 11:40 AM |
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Gundark
Mayhem
Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Skywalker Ranch
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We watched it where I used to work over in Lancaster. I cried when it happened and so did a bunch of other people. 
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Apr 12th, 2001 02:03 PM |
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queeq
Chaos
Registered: Oct 2000
Location: JP's bed
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Interesting fireworks.
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Apr 13th, 2001 04:40 AM |
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Dim
Creativity
Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Southern California
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More than that queeq...it practically sent the nation into a depression and deal a severe blow to our space program.
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Apr 14th, 2001 03:09 PM |
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Ratcat
Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
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Yeah, practically 2 years with no shuttle launches, but it did open a few eyes to the way that NASA was having to cut corners with the budget they had.
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Apr 14th, 2001 03:17 PM |
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queeq
Chaos
Registered: Oct 2000
Location: JP's bed
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Well, for one, in percentages that budget isn't very high in the first place. And second, they knew not everything was in tip-top shape when they launched. Just the usual bureaucrat-we-don't-care-about-our-people crap.
Tragic and typical.
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Apr 14th, 2001 07:23 PM |
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Ratcat
Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
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Yes, the bureaucrats probably did know, but it opened the eyes of the public to just how badly the budgets were being slashed and slashed.
Unfortunately this situation has never improved, and probably won't in the near future.
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Apr 14th, 2001 10:39 PM |
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queeq
Chaos
Registered: Oct 2000
Location: JP's bed
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Well, they're sending off another camera to Mars. You wanna go next, RC? 
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Apr 17th, 2001 04:56 AM |
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finti
Senior Member
Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
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I was at school in Arkansas when Challanger blew up, the entire school got to watch it live because of the teacher who attended the voyage. It took quite a while before anyone understood it blew up. It was a very very strange feeling to be a "live" witness to the tradegy then the silence afterwards.
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Apr 19th, 2001 08:48 AM |
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Ratcat
Senior Member
Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
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I think one of the absultely mworst things was the 45 minutes or so when "experts" were saying the astronauts could have survived if the flight deck had remained intact. It was false hope, but I think it helped a lot off people, but probably not the families involved.
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Apr 19th, 2001 09:49 AM |
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finti
Senior Member
Registered: Dec 2000
Location:
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That is very true
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Apr 19th, 2001 10:16 AM |
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