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astronomy, atlantis, NASA, space shuttle

Wings to Space, Part I

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My First and Last Shuttle Launches

It was 4 a.m. on April 12, 1981.  Sunday was normally a day we’d typically sleep in, but this one was special. We got up extra early to watch the first-ever launch of a space shuttle. Her name?  Columbia, and she was flying mission STS-1, carrying two test pilots Bob Crippen and John Young, plus a load of flight instruments to test her performance during launch, ascent to space, on orbit, and during descent and landing.

It was exciting and scary, but there was NO way I would have slept through such a momentous occasion. Why? Because I am a child of the Gemini and Apollo age and I grew up watching launches. When Columbia made her maiden trip to orbit, it had been a LONG time since the last U.S.-crewed launch. The last human crew to fly to the Moon, for example was on Apollo 17, on December 7, 1972.  The three lunar missions planned to follow up (Apollo 18, 19, and 20) were cancelled to free up money for the space shuttle program. The last official Apollo mission was Apollo-Soyuz, which flew in 1975, and of course, humans went to space to live and work on Skylab in the 1970s.  By the time those were done, I couldn’t imagine a time when we wouldn’t have space travel through NASA. Yet, we had to wait six years from the last Apollo mission until the shuttles began flying.

So, there I was, bleary-eyed in front of our TV that morning, excited, worried and nervous about the success of this next step in U.S. human spaceflight. In typical NASA style, the announcer explained every step, every part of the spacecraft we were seeing. It looked so strange – a moth-shaped plane with wings, attached to a white-painted main tank and two solid rocket boosters. I was used to seeing Saturn Vs lift off, with little modules on top of their stacks. The shuttle was unlike anything I’d seen from NASA. It reminded me of the space planes from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and that morning, it seemed that futuristic realms were one step closer to reality.

Suddenly, the calm, professional NASA-style countdown was down to its final stages.  “T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, we’ve gone for main engine start, we have main engine start… and liftoff… liftoff of America’s first space shuttle… and the shuttle has cleared the tower…”

In less than five seconds, the shuttle had left the launch pad and was on her way.  I remember being absolutely stunned at how quickly Columbia leapt away from Earth. By contrast, the old Saturn V rockets used to take forever to get away. So, seeing a nimble shuttle and her rockets fairly soar to the sky was a new experience. It was absolutely beautiful, and a sight I have never forgotten.

A few days ago, the world witnessed the final launch in the space shuttle program.  Those of us who were able to be at the Kennedy Space Center counted down the final launch with the announcer. It felt like being at Times Square on New Year’s Eve (but with less people) and chanting the numbers.

For many folks, the sight invoked a steady stream of memories from 30 years of spectacular launches, triumphant returns, and two unbearable tragedies. Throughout that time, I’ve covered a few launches as a member of the press, watched several missions to Hubble Space Telescope as a graduate student working on an HST instrument team, and like so many others in our country, occasionally took the shuttle program for granted – as if it would always be there. But, as with all technology and technological programs, the space shuttles about to become things of the past. They are only part of the path that will keep humans going to space, and I feel fairly certain that the future for space flight in the U.S. will “take off” again.

In the meantime, the part of Florida that has rumbled to the sound of high-powered launches and the double-booms of landings for 30 years, is saying farewell to a bit of space exploration history. It’s a sad time. For folks in Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Merritt Island, Titusville, Palm Bay, Orlando, and Melbourne, the loss goes beyond running out to the causeway to watch a launch.  Saying goodbye to the shuttles also means bidding farewell to thousands of high-tech jobs as companies such as United Space Alliance (the company responsible for shuttle maintenance and launch operations) lays off waves of workers.

Right now the region’s unemployment rate is hovering around 10.8 percent, but that will worsen once the last wave of shuttle-related layoffs happens. Shuttle workers are crowding into job fairs and going back to school to learn new tricks for new jobs. Many are leaving for employment elsewhere, leaving behind towns that once depended on the property taxes they paid for schools, roads and other infrastructures. Clothing stores, restaurants, recreation shops, and many other businesses fear the worst. Some have shut their doors. It’s unquestionably a tough time, but this is a tough region.  The people survived the shutdown of Apollo, and hopefully they will get through the lean times following this last shuttle launch.

Still, the shuttle program and its workers leave behind a solid record of accomplishments. When I think back to that first launch, there’s no way I could even have imagined just how much science was enabled by the shuttle missions. It’s been a great ride for the past 30 years, and I hope that the future brings something like it to inspire new generations of space enthusiasts.

atlantis, musings, NASA, space shuttle

More Shuttle Thoughts

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There are a Million “End of Shuttle” Stories

The launch of Atlantis in fisheye format. Copyright 2011 Loch Ness Productions. Taken by Mark C. Petersen.

Now that we’re back from witnessing the launch of space shuttle Atlantis for the last time, ending a 30-year-long era of NASA’s space exploration history, I’ve got a bit more time to stooge around the Web and read other people’s thoughts about this experience.  There are millions of words written about this time in space exploration history across the blog-o-sphere, and most are heartfelt and profoundly moving. A few entries are sardonic, sarcastic, and tragically hip, as if it’s cool to be disdainful of something that means a lot to many Americans (and, as far as I can tell, impresses the heck out of many people in other countries, too).

One of my jobs at the launch was to cover the event for Sky & Telescope and also for this story for Yahoo News. My story for Yahoo was picked up immediately, while the work I did for S&T has not yet appeared but will likely be published soon. I also have a couple of other things to create (a short video), and another blog entry wherein I muse further about the socio-political aspects of this program’s end.

As I pondered what to write for these venues, I did a lot of sifting through shuttle archives and old stories (and my previous entry talks about some of the cool facts I uncovered).  It was an interesting time sitting in the press annex at the Kennedy Space Center, trying to marshal my thoughts after the launch.

The whole experience was more than the launch. For us, it began when Atlantis rolled out from the orbiter processing facility in May and over to the VAB for her final preparations. That was when it really came home to me that this program was not just the hardware and the missions. It was the people. The technical staff who worked on the orbiters, the crew support staff, the PIO folk… they’re all people… with homes and kids and hobbies and lives that are just like most other peoples’ lives. Except that they work here on Earth in the space exploration realm.  So, just as I have a sort of emotional connect to the shuttle program (and to space exploration and astronomy in general), so do they.  Not just because they have jobs, but because they do their jobs well. And they love their jobs.  With that in mind, I was charmed and got something in my eye when I watched the video below.

Watch that video again. Notice the pride, mixed with what has to be sadness, on their faces. These people cared about the jobs they did (I suspect many of them will be part of the layoffs coming in the next few weeks as NASA’s contractors shrink their work forces in response to the shuttle program winding down and the short-sighted and partisan Congressional  attempts to gut the space program).

The people in that video are proud of what they did for NASA and their employers.  And proud of the country they live in that enabled the shuttle program to fly. (For all the sardonic hipsters who are just too cool to appreciate space, this is for you: don’t look at those faces and tell ME that a space program means nothing.)

For us, the launch experience itself included a day or two of activities before the actual liftoff. For one thing, we (as press) were allowed to go out to the launch pad (within a few hundred feet) and see the orbiter and her fuel tanks and boosters after the Rotating Service Structure had rolled away.  It was wet, hot, muggy, and rainy — but there we were out there, setting up our tripods and cameras and taking visuals of this last-of-her-kind NASA mission hardware.

There were press briefings to attend, along with other tours and interviews with astronauts (if we wanted them), and a chance to meet officials from NASA and its contractors.  By late in the day before launch, many of us opted to go get some rest, because we had to be back at the site very very early the next morning to beat the traffic of more than a million people who were also headed out to see the launch from various causeways and viewing sites open to the public.

We arrived back at KSC at 3:30 a.m., set up our camera tripods, secured them against rain and wind, and then headed back to our car to catch a little nap.  We were up again by 7 a.m. or so, and by then the site was buzzing with activity from press, Tweetup attendees, and other assorted visitors.  The whop-whop-whop of the escort chopper that followed the astronauts out to the pad in their little silver van was what woke us up.  We grabbed a little breakfast, freshened up, and then waited out the hours til launch.

It was quite an experience and one that we will treasure.  It is sad to see the shuttles go. I am of mixed feelings about it, and that’s something I’ll explore in another blog entry. But, I’m glad we went, and I’m glad I was able to share it with others via my articles.