Shuttles are History, But Not Forgotten

Well, shuttle Atlantis has roared into history. And, I find myself, like all the other folks who have watched her lift off, in the position of looking back at 30 years of shuttle missions.

Is this how historians feel as they sift throughmillions of facts about momentous happenings in history? If so, it’s a weird feeling, because as I read through all the facts and figures about the last 30 years of shuttle launches, it does very much feel like the end of a momentous era in the U.S. Space Program.

I’ve been watching shuttle launches for three decades, and it never occurred to me that they’d ever come to an end. Yet, here we are, getting ready for that final launch of space shuttle Atlantis. And, I’ve been doing a little sifting around, watching old launch videos, reading about the accomplishments of the shuttles and their crews, and finding out some really cool and interesting things about these magnificent flying machines.

Did you know that shuttle Atlantis has flown more than 120 million miles in space – and all those before this final mission? She has orbited Earth more than 4,600 times. By the time she comes home from her final trip, Atlantis will have traveled a distance equivalent to 521 times the distance between the Earth and Moon.

Atlantis is the most lightweight of the space shuttle fleet, at 151,315 pounds. Space shuttle Endeavour was three pounds heavier. Every shuttle that left the launch pad had to haul a similar amount of weight plus a payload, pushing against and overcoming the pull of Earth’s gravity to get to space.

Here’s an oddly touching fact: Atlantis is going to space with a man’s wedding ring lost somewhere in her aft crew compartment. According to a report on NASASpaceflight.com, the ring was lost during the servicing flow for the orbiter’s last flight. The report concludes by saying, “While the owner of the ring may have received an ear-bashing from his wife, the engineer can look forward to proudly announcing he was reunited with the space flown ring by Atlantis when she returns to her Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF)… providing she doesn’t take the opportunity to propose to another vehicle whilst on orbit.”

Humans like to give nicknames to the technological marvels they work on. I used to have a sporty little car that I named Tezcatlipoca because it was sleek and black, just like the Aztec jaguar god for which it was named. Well, things are no different for the space shuttles. The people who readied Atlantis for her missions nicknamed the shuttle “Britney”, earned because of her diva-like tendencies during mission preparations.

All of the shuttles have carried scientific/technological payloads. These ranged from experiments in life sciences, materials science, Earth observing studies, astronomy, and classified Department of Defense projects. Atlantis delivered the Magellan spacecraft to Earth orbit and deployment to Venus. It also carried the Compton Gamma-ray Satellite to space, and brought a seven-member crew to complete servicing mission number 4 to the Hubble Space Telescope.

A total of 355 people have flown to space aboard the U.S. space shuttles. Among them have been the first U.S. woman to fly to space (Sally Ride), the oldest (John Glenn, age 77 at the time of his shuttle flight), and astronauts from Israel, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and several other countries. In addition, shuttle missions also ferried such life forms as plant seedlings, insects, shrimp, jellyfish, and rodents in a variety of life-sciences modules to test the effects of low gravity and other conditions.

Space shuttle Columbia flew the longest mission in November 1996. Her combined time on orbit for mission STS-80 was 17 days and 15 hours. In 135 shuttle flights, only two shuttle missions ended in disaster, resulting in the deaths of 14 astronauts. The first was the breakup of 51L, when space shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds into its launch on January 28, 1986. The second was the destruction of space shuttle Columbia as she disintegrated during her re-entry to the home port on February 1, 2003.

In 30 years, the shuttles have taken us to low-Earth orbit, delivered payloads that extended our eyes to the planets, stars, galaxies, and to the limits of the observable universe. There aren’t too many projects that human kind has taken on that can boast of such achievements. In the days and weeks to come, we will be seeing many tributes to the shuttle program and the people who made it happen. I’m joining in that chorus of praise: “Hail Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis!” It’s been an amazing 30 years!