The FIRST Shuttle Launch

[RandolphB]

There seems to be many strong ideas about where the Shuttles should have been retired to, so I was wondering just how long everyone has actually been supporting and following the Space Program?

I saw every KSC launch from the last Gemini launch, up to the 5th or 6th Shuttle launch. One of the highlights of my life was being at KSC on the causeway for the first shuttle launch....so I'm asking, how many WIXers were there that day also?

On a side note, how many were at the Ansari X Prize launches?

[Steve Nelson]

I was in high school. IIRC the launch was early on a Sunday morning, so I set my alarm. I got up in time, but they held the countdown for some reason, and I fell back to sleep. When I woke back up, Columbia was already in orbit. Needless to say, I was crushed!

SN

[Junkyard36]

We used to live about 25 miles down the coast in Indian Harbour Beach. I remember walking out to the beach with my family and watching the first two launches.

As a kid, it was a really cool example of the speed of sound - seeing how far up in the sky it was when the sound first hit us. Good stuff.


Hate to see the demise of the national space program as well as the political placement of the shuttles.

Mike

[Pogo]

I was born and grew in the shadow of the Johnson Space Center, so I'm pretty well versed in all the space stuff. We're practically in mourning around here for not getting one of the shuttles. But what the heck. Who wants some old dead thing lying around anyway?

As for your thread header, the first shuttle launch was a pretty big deal, alright -- but the second shuttle launch was a much bigger deal. Know why?

I enjoy asking that question, and am always amazed at how few know the answer. Of course WIX'ers will know.....

[Garth]

I grew up with the Shuttles.

I remember having friends over to the house when I was 4 or 5 (born in 1971) to see one of the Enterprise ALT drops live on my parents' B&W TV set.

My parents let me stay home from school every time STS-1 was scheduled to launch, through all the scrubs, and I saw her first launch live (this time on a color set).

I watched all the first launches and landings of each of the shuttles live, with the possible exception of Atlantis (we didn't have cable at the time, while I think I saw her first launch live, it may not have been broadcast live on the broadcast channels so it may be a faulty memory).

I did not see Challenger's final launch, was home from school on a snow day but we didn't have cable. I do remember Peter Jennings breaking in with the live coverage of her loss and watching President Reagan's speech that night.

I've enjoyed living less than 5 miles from Enterprise for the last 8+ years, and visiting her often

[Garth]

I enjoy asking that question, and am always amazed at how few know the answer. Of course WIX'ers will know.....

Is it the obvious answer associated with being the first reusable space vehicle ... or a different (trick question) one?

[tom d. friedman]

i was in college, my interest started their. osu!!! go bucks!! i followed the program closely. i had just come back from lunch when i was asst. manager at hills dept store in roanoke virginia when customers & employees were gathered around all the tv's that were on for display when challenger blew up. it was a sureal experience to say the least with all those people around.

[RandolphB]

I enjoy asking that question, and am always amazed at how few know the answer. Of course WIX'ers will know.....

Was it the fact it was the last time the tanks were painted, thus the last time shuttle sat outside without being attacked by woodpeckers, or perhaps the first notice of O-rings leaks on the solid boosters?

[k5083]

I visited Kennedy as a tyke in 1976 and there was a lot of excitement about the forthcoming shuttle then. They were giving out a lot of artists impression posters and press-kit type material which I took home. Wonder where all that stuff went. Must still have some of it.

I followed the Enterprise flights avidly and got the Revell kit of the 747-Enterprise combo. I built the Enterprise part; the 747 part is still waiting its turn to be built.

I watched the first few landings and launches, then gradually lost interest. The far-flung planetary missions of the bots came to seem more exciting to me. Like most Americans, I am guilty of only reviving my interest in the shuttles when the disasters occurred.

Having heard first-hand the expectations for the program in the late 1970s, I couldn't see it as a success by those standards. I came to see it, like the Concorde, as an achievement that remained impressive, but never fulfilled its original promise nor led to developments that would. There has been some after-the-fact "expectation management" that has led to it being thought of as a success in a more limited sense.

August

[tom d. friedman]

the shuttles have been divvyed out as of today........ florida, washington, california & the enterprise test shuttle. i'll let you guess the institutions...... it doesn't take rocket science to figure out

[SaxMan]

I had spent the night at a friend's house and we got up early to watch the launch. Having watched the last of the Apollo launches and Apollo-Soyuz, I remember everyone being impressed by the large billowy smoke plumes that the Columbia made on her first launch.

I do remember Challenger...was in high school for that, as well as Columbia. I remember watching Columbia and first thinking someone was replaying the Challenger disaster. It was only after reading the crawl on the bottom of the screen two or three times before the magnitude of what I was watching really sunk in.

I also recall watching one of the glide tests with Enterprise that was televised nationally. It's hard to believe this country literally went from zero to the moon in just over a decade, using computers that had less power than a cell phone. Thirty years since the space shuttle...we're pretty much in the same place. The ISS has replaced Skylab, but that's about it.