45 years ago today (April 14th, 1981) astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen completed the first spaceflight of the space shuttle program, STS-1, landing Columbia at Edwards Air Force Base. (🎥 credit: NASA on X)

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kalvaroo@reddit

I saw a shuttle landing as a kid at Edwards Air Force Base when they first tested the drag chute somewhere around 1990. My dad worked for Rockwell and Boeing on the shuttle program growing up. Never got to a launch but saw a few landings and met the crews.

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Fluffy_Muffins_415@reddit

Got that 4.5:1 glide ratio

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AffectedRipples@reddit

Falling in style.

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Green_Fan_8925@reddit

What do you say we drop the nose

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nehpets99@reddit

Just a flying brick on approach.

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Ok-Active1581@reddit

20K feet to landing in about 2 minutes

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YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO@reddit

Off topic, but thats an amazing profile picture.

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AffectedRipples@reddit

Thank you. Definitely one of the best looking planes in my opinion.

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YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO@reddit

Agreed, one of my all time favorites as well.

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Original-Let8340@reddit

What a site indeed!

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PetriDishCocktail@reddit

A Boeing 787 has a glide ratio of 20:1 for comparison.

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senorpoop@reddit

Glide ratio was so bad that the practice airplane was a Gulfstream II that they would fly with the main gear and the thrust reversers deployed.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

That first few seconds of the video with nose down has my brain screaming SINK RATE!!!

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MisterZAMIRZ@reddit

And the weird visual trick where it looks like the one support plane all of a sudden accelerates, but it's actually just the shuttle leveling off and slowing suddenly.

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DiscoDiscoB00mB00m@reddit

Everything I’ve ever known about landing with throttles was dumbfounded as well.

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Tupcek@reddit

Angle of Attack? Yes!

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Fantastic_Rabbit_100@reddit

Bank Angle: check.

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blackdocsavage@reddit

“Flying brick, I like that.”

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JazzlikeEntry8288@reddit

Underrated movie!

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blackdocsavage@reddit

I love it. I loved Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland’s characters.

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Enough-Astronomer-65@reddit

What does glide ratio mean? Is it 4.5 thousand feet per every thousand foot altitude?

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ListenBoth434@reddit

Yep, absolutely horrendous for a glider.

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unreqistered@reddit

but pretty good for a brick

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PacmanGoNomNomz@reddit

Actual gliders around that period had glide ratios of 45 (in typical 18 metre configuration).

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Annual-Advisor-7916@reddit

Yet, even a F-104 can perform a deadstick landing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_XF-104_Starfighter#Testing_and_evaluation

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ListenBoth434@reddit

Yeah, even beginner paragliders are in the area of 8-9:1

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FlyByPC@reddit

Open window
Throw brick out window
Follow brick for optimal glide path

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okiharaherbst@reddit

Ready for a gliding approach in Cherokee six

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Ok-Active1581@reddit

Steely eyed missile men

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BigBallOX@reddit

5-4-3..touchdown

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Ben_The_Stig@reddit

Still to this day the most bonkers landing profile ever.

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garbagekr@reddit

Imagine having a space shuttle type rating lol

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mimaikin-san@reddit

I don’t know how many others were obsessed with the space program but John Young has been a personal hero of mine ever since I was 8 and watched this mission conclude.

Top notch pilot. Apollo astronaut who walked on the moon. And the first commander of the Space Shuttle Program. Just a legend all around.

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Kotukunui@reddit

The legend of the corned beef sandwich.

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ChinaCatProphet@reddit

Definite bragging rights at the crew lounge.

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JBerry_Mingjai@reddit

And don’t even mention his Apollo spacecraft and LM ratings. Only a small handful of folks with those.

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BillyDreCyrus@reddit

And Gemini

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JBerry_Mingjai@reddit

Geez, that’s right! 2 Gemini missions, 2 Apollo missions, and 2 Space Shuttle missions. Also flight tested the F-4, setting two time-to-climb world records.

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ChinaCatProphet@reddit

Fighter jock: I'm type rated on....

STS 1 Commander: ...

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njsullyalex@reddit

“I had a Concorde type rating! I’m the fastest pilot on the room!”

“Nah, I flew the SR-71, I’m the fastest pilot in the room!”

The Space Shuttle pilot sipping tea in the corner: 😏

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PowerOfEternity@reddit

"...Rockwell OV? What on earth is that?!?"

"Look here sonny, earth has only a small part to do with that type rating..."

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maxplaysmusic@reddit

My Government Vehicle Shakes at 17,500 MPH

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imodey@reddit

my god, the nostalgia

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Threedawg@reddit

The recently started making new ones with just ray

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bryseeayo@reddit

"Accelerates really, really well"

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PowerOfEternity@reddit

Love that bit, haha

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MaddingtonBear@reddit

There's at least one Shuttle commander who went on to fly for Southwest.

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theLastZebranky@reddit

"Requesting clearance for flight level one five three zero"

"Flight level WHAT?"

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talldangry@reddit

"There were a lot of things we couldn’t do in a Shuttle, but we were the highest guys on the block and loved reminding our fellow aviators of this fact."

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kmac6821@reddit

I got to land the shuttle sim in Houston. It was remarkably easy. I was a little fast and one foot left of centerline, but otherwise it was a clean landing.

Houston, full stop.

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-Badger3-@reddit

It's a glider, big whoop.

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ListenBoth434@reddit

Well, there is this r/Battlestations post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/s/Ugpi9Blvtv

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Francoberry@reddit

Don't go giving Nathan Fielder any more ideas!

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Unfair_Cry6808@reddit

Boy I sure hope they re enact this like they did the moon flight.

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Hot_Rock@reddit

It was always a little amazing to me that they had no go around, no alternate, no second chance. This brick is coming down regardless.

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afriendincanada@reddit

I always thought they put the landing gear down pretty late given that they couldn’t go around. It had been stowed for a week in space and then gone though reentry.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

The gear works or it doesn't. If it doesn't actuate, extend or lock there's really nothing to be done about it.

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afriendincanada@reddit

I guess I’m assuming there’s a checklist they can run for everything and figure out whether it’s actually failed (didn’t deploy) or just didn’t indicate properly.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

A non-deployment at a distance will reduce drag and expected energy bleed. This adds a new problem. If the drag is asymmetric, that's tough to overcome with the limited flight controls. The question remains, what can be done differently? I sincerely doubt that the gear can retract in fight. Astronauts are in pressure suits and five point harnesses, so they can't take the brace position. There's not time to do anything significant.

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Shuttle had no way to retract the gear in flight. It could only be done on the ground, with GSE providing hydraulics to a non-flight hyd system. The gear doors were closed by hand.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

Pretty much what I guessed. Not having equipment on board to stow the gear saves weight and complexity.

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afriendincanada@reddit

Good points. I’m not saying they should have done anything differently, but I am wondering what their plan was.

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Geek_Wandering@reddit

Declare the fault and continue. There may be a visual status report from the ground on status bad, but nothing really changes. Maybe ground crew starts moving a bit sooner.

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gusterfell@reddit

Probably essentially to crash as gently as possible and hope for the best.

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mrthirsty15@reddit

Yep. Better to find out when you're about to touch down vs finding out miles out where you now are going to overshoot the strip due to too much speed.

I don't know how much they can overshoot their target, but one of those two situations sound slightly more survivable.

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gnartung@reddit

I feel like I remember reading about the landing gear being a point of concern for NASA and the astronauts. Something about the gear being gravity actuated and having no way to retract again if it ever unintentionally deployed in orbit, thus dooming the crew during reentry.

Trying to track down the source but no luck so far. Maybe someone knows more about what I’m struggling to remember?

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Correct; not only were the gear not able to be retracted in flight, the gear doors were closed by hand. No way possible to close them on orbit.

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afriendincanada@reddit

That’s amazing. I was only thinking about the TOGA issue.

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AscendMoros@reddit

Had they already removed the ejector seats? I thought they had them on Columbia during the first few flights in case something went wrong during testing.

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Ungrammaticus@reddit

It was always a little amazing to me that they had no go around, no alternate, no second chance. This brick is coming down regardless.

Well, the only alternative at that time was parachuting down in a crew capsule and praying you land somewhere where the search and rescue team can recover you. A precision landing meant hitting the right continent or splashing down in the intended ocean.

The cosmonauts used to have a specially designed shotgun in their capsules just in case a bear recovered them before their own team could

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well-that-was-fast@reddit

no go around, no alternate, no second chance

And they put the landing gear down like 1 minute from touchdown.

Not a lot of troubleshooting time if one set of gear sticks.

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barracudarescue@reddit

There was also no GPS when this happened, so all the navigation had to be done by calculating the flight path with the original space shuttle navigation system. Scott Manley has a good YouTube video about this.

https://youtu.be/Jhjamr7EnA8?si=pmPLp2T0JJMob6ex

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Dolapevich@reddit

THis reminded me of the video: How to land the space shuttle

Quite funny and insightful.

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Due-Engineering-637@reddit

Such a great point. I constantly have to remind myself that the technology I am using today was the science fiction of my childhood.

My favorite: The navigation in my car is soooo much better than what James Bond had in his Austin Martin.

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Lufishshmebb@reddit

If you think that’s good wait until you hear about his Aston Martin

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Due-Engineering-637@reddit

Technology is great but not great enough to counter act my idiocy.

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notalk82@reddit

Remember Dick Tracy's communicator watch thing? Even before the apple watch the first smart phones were miles better than that thing.

It's crazy how much we take technology for granted, especially those of us that are old enough to grow up without it and watched it become a reality.

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ExplanationFunny@reddit

Thanks for sharing the video! My husband is going to love this.

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leedogger@reddit

Unbelievable

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mav3r1ck92691@reddit

It's just a big glider! We don't get second chances in the little ones either. I always chuckle a bit when flying with friends who've only ever flown powered if they have to do a go-around because "Doesn't feel right."

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ventus1b@reddit

Also: no engine that can fail at an inopportune time!

IIRC they were also using S-curves for energy management and had the split-rudder airbrakes.

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Grumpy-Troglodyte@reddit

well of course you can't, they don't launch them anymore

just being a butthead, but gliders look pretty cool, my old fat ass isn't trying it though, gravity would not be kind to me when i plummeted back to earth

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ChrisFromSeattle@reddit

Well they had a go-around which was "go around the earth in orbit again until the conditions for landing are ideal", but your right, crazy precision on all the shuttle landings.

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Typical-Option-5404@reddit

Minimums/DH: FL 600

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Inquisitive_idiot@reddit

🤭🫠

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Tracerz2Much@reddit

Good luck spotting the runway from there lmao

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Raguleader@reddit

No go-around once they begin the landing approach. That thing isn't getting back into orbit before it lands one way or the other.

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Accurate_Outcome_510@reddit

They could always divert to the LA River, if needed.

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Raguleader@reddit

I understood that reference dot jpeg

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Almaegen@reddit

I mean they chose when to reenter. Its not like they were going to be taking chances on weather conditions.

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taycoug@reddit

Such an incredible task. Think about how much of the training for that landing involved handling emergencies and failures while still needing to land the brick.

I guess, like all things space travel related, it helps to have a team of crack mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and meteorologists all coming up with your plan and helping you practice it.

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DoctorCopper3113@reddit

Any purpose for the escorts besides filming?

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Chief-_-Wiggum@reddit

You have to remember the crew has very limited view from the cockpit position of the shuttle. Beyond what was said by others about relaying info/ confirming gear deployment.. the way they flew the shuttle down either had them pointing at the ground for a fair way or nose up in the sky at the end.. chase aircraft is also there in case something goes wrong and can pin point search and rescue locations.

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Hodgetwins32@reddit

Hasn’t been said but relay realtime information on the exterior, gear deployment, craft condition after reentry, etcetera

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mynadidas5@reddit

At what point do they intercept? And given the speeds that it’s moving at, i imagine it would be multiple chase aircraft handing off, no?

Like it would be dope to learn about what the reentry to landing support process looked like. Imagine that mission.

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lockhart1952@reddit

These planes picked up the shuttle from far away and followed it all the way in. There were no other chase planes visible from the ground.

Watching this land with 250000 of my closest friends was incredible. After all of the delays and uncertainties, then spotting it in the distance, then realizing that it was dropping like a rock, then seeing it pull up to the smoothest landing ever was exhilarating.

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dislocatedshoelac3@reddit

How did you make so many friends, I’m needing tips

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tvs_franks_tv@reddit

Step One: go to shuttle landing watch party

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Ikrit122@reddit

Especially on the first landing after spaceflight.

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DoctorCopper3113@reddit

Ah, yeah that makes a lot of sense

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FateEx1994@reddit

The landing maneuver they have NO THRUST.

The entire descent down Space Shuttle was basically a glider, from space.

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stormdraggy@reddit

"Glider"

To train for shuttle landings, pilots flew a modified learjet with flaps that could fold upwards; landing gear down; and thrust reverse deployed.

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Older_cyclist@reddit

"Chase" to observe the shuttle. At one point you can hear "Thank you Chase."

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ThatRunwayBehindUs@reddit

Visual Verification - Yep, gear came down. Yep this looks good etc. Visual Verification of everything including when they practiced the profile.

There to help back them up because they are flying a massive brick and sometimes things can happen that we dont expect and they can help act as an extra set of eyes on what is happening etc.

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duggatron@reddit

Yeah, it's not like you can go around or ask the tower to put eyes on something. They would need to make decisions very quickly if something went wrong with the gear or a control surface.

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Badrear@reddit

I would think the decisions would be easier in the shuttle. Gear doesn’t come down: Belly landing. Control surface working wrong: Hope you don’t need it. Like you said; there’s no going around, and there’s no way to compensate with thrust.

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84Cressida@reddit

Data gathering and also public affairs

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ManqobaDad@reddit

If it turns out the symbiote is on board they can immediately blast it to smitherines

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Chief-_-Wiggum@reddit

I wonder how that first conversation with pilots went, when they proposed they land a 200000 pound glider from orbit...

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Rich-Concentrate9047@reddit

Quick question, I don't know anything about the space shuttle apart from building one from scratch* when I was younger. Search Lego Technic set 8480 to witness my amazing skills.
Anyway... I was wondering, what are the two planes alongside the shuttle supposed to be doing? If the shuttle fails, they won't be any help, are they here to check the area, take pictures, talk to the pilots, maybe they were just cruising and happened to see a freaking space shuttle land and thought "hey MIKE, look!! Let's land before that brick". I'm interested in any details, I don't know anything about flying and landing and stuff.

* there was an instruction set, I cheated.

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Generally, flight tests chase crews are backing up the primary crew with checklists (if necessary), watching for problems like leaks, surface flutter, etc., and ensuring the area is clear. Sometimes a chase plane will be a “photo chase”, taking still photos and/or video for the engineers to review post-flight.

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Rich-Concentrate9047@reddit

Thanks for the details, it makes more sense. The only thing I didn't understand from your comment is "surface flutter". What does it mean ? Other than that... well, I wish we had the POV from these planes. Awesome job... Wow.

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Flight control surfaces like ailerons, elevators, rudders, etc. can flutter (in basic terms, vibrate badly enough to cause damage) under certain aerodynamic conditions. Wind tunnel testing was fairly accurate in the ‘70s, but couldn’t replicate every variable that an aircraft in flight experiences.

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GrumpyIAmBgrudgngly2@reddit

45 years ago, I couldn't decide between watching the landing, broadcast live on British Isles television, or going to watch Superman 2 at The Picture House cinema in Douglas in The Isle Of Man British Isles. Everyone still needs their heroes. Cinematic or in real life........

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Gold-Mine-Trash@reddit

Who remembers the Flight Simulator game where you had to intercept a Shuttle landing? It was hard to keep up with the thing.

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Euphorix126@reddit

What!? I need to try this. Is it MSFS2024?

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USA_A-OK@reddit

FSX I think

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Euphorix126@reddit

Thank you for a thread to follow

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Youregoingtodiealone@reddit

Top Gun on NES, trying to land on the carrier....

Unrelated, Jaws on NES, and successfully stabbing Jaws with the bow.....

Good times

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Kooky_Membership9497@reddit

There was a horrifically difficult Atari 2600 shuttle game too.

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PLS-Surveyor-US@reddit

I don't think I ever got that to land. Kept me from applying to NASA. Well, that and my crappy eyesight.

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Cow_Launcher@reddit

Virgin also published a full-on simulator, with a surprising amount of interaction with the computers and controls.

I have no comment about the realism, but the drop tests of the Enterprise were shockingly difficult. Fond memories of trying (and failing) to avoid wanging into the tail of the SCA.

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Xitztlacayotl@reddit

Which game is this?

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Easy_Mechanic_9787@reddit

Flight Simulator which is only capitalized, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE4oIOgR0wA

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Housemusicluv@reddit

I remember downloading the shuttle and gliding it down to land. Good times

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Something to remember…

The very first flight of an all-up STS was STS-1.
There were no unmanned flights to see if it all worked as expected, unlike every other manned spacecraft to that point. The SSMEs and SRBs had never been fired together at the same time. The first time the full STS stack was fired was with Young & Crippen aboard, with the intent to go to orbit. The ejection seats were only viable for the first minute or so during liftoff, and maybe the last couple minutes of landing approach. John Young & Robert Crippen were the ballsiest test crew to ever walk this planet.

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P33L3D@reddit

Walked on the moon, landed the first shuttle, Young was the right man at a very narrow window of time. RIP.

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Joename@reddit

It is so cool how it looks like it's dropping like a rock, and then suddenly enters this long flat-ish glidepath. Seeing the chase planes alongside is just such an awesome shot too.

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aadoqee@reddit

If you like that check the landing flair on the lifting bodies. Same airstrip but looks like theyre gonna splat

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khando@reddit

You aren't kidding, this landing is insane looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGOeJdxRlRY&t=447s

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aadoqee@reddit

aw ya nice the M2-F2 at 17:29 is the one thats burned in my brain

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Legitimate_Humsn@reddit

Delta wing vortex lift. It's the only way the Concorde and SR71 were able to take off without like 10 miles of runway.

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mightyblackgoose@reddit

No chute?

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Drag chute was added later in the program, and retrofitted to Columbia.

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mightyblackgoose@reddit

Thank you. Didn't know that, and it seemed really weird to see it land and not deploy the chute.

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mightymike24@reddit

Kind of sad that 45 years later we're back to 1960s era multi stage rockets. I certainly thought we'd be doing single stage to orbit space planes by now.

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Youwin737@reddit

While undoubtedly the coolest vehicle ever made, it was ultimately a failure. Expensive, dangerous, and never achieving its reusability goals. Needing extensive refurbishments between flights. Traditional rockets and capsules can do almost everything the shuttle could do, safer and cheaper. The only capability it had that we don't have now, was the ability to return satellites from orbit. Every other mission is better suited to traditional rockets. Plus rockets today are much more advanced than rockets in the 60s. With reusable boosters needing limited refurbishment, and higher payload capacity.

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nzjeux@reddit

For the Cost of the entire Shuttle Program, the USA could have launched 1x Saturn V per year + 2-3 S1-Bs. That's a Skylab, a year + three rotations of crew per year for 50 years.

The Idea of the STS program, on the whole, was a great idea, but politics got involved, and then compromises were made, which just ended up giving a terrible solution.

Remember, kids, the Space Shuttle is the deadliest spacecraft ever flown. Seven were killed just for a communications satellite that could have been put on an automated rocket, and another seven were killed to run experiments that could have been run on the ISS/Weren't really that productive anyway.

But shit, it looked cool though.

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sw1ss_dude@reddit

Without the Space Shuttle there would not be ISS, at least not in its current robust form. It’s appropriate to consider these two programs together for historical significance..

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Haeronalda@reddit

Absolutely, but the shuttle, much as I love it, was always questionable as a man-rated vehicle, purely from a safety perspective.

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DatBoiii4@reddit

The problem with the space shuttle was how cartoonishly dangerous it was as a concept

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Medium-General-8234@reddit

I went to Kennedy Space Center last year with my young son and had the same thought in the space shuttle exhibit. We have regressed in our space travel capabilities.

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Chaps_Jr@reddit

Multi-stage is vastly more efficient and cost effective. For any given amount of fuel burned, there will now be a portion of fuel tank that is just empty. After so long, they just end up hauling the dead weight of the used boosters, so it's more efficient to jettison the empty boosters and fire a new stage on the now-lighter craft. Lower fuel usage overall, and better acceleration.

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cerevant@reddit

Why spend all that fuel to send up dead weight? Even the SpaceX Starship is a two stage rocket.

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purple30klegion@reddit

cost effectiveness.

the shuttle was designed to save money, and ultimately didn't.

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_V4NQU15H_@reddit

Still more turn rate than a starfighter

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TransporterError@reddit

Those two guys had pairs larger than anyone to have the guts to fly on the first launch of a new and unproven vehicle. Mucho Grande Huevos!!

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donnysaysvacuum@reddit

Same engines as the Artemis program.

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F1shermanIvan@reddit

I love that the Space Shuttle program was such a shit-show from the beginning of it all, that when Young and Crippen landed STS-1 at Edwards, that they got out after it stopped and one of the first things said was "I'm amazed we lived through that."

There was quite a bit of damage to the orbiter, including tile damage, bent flaps and fuel tank supports, and a bunch of other stuff.

The main body flap under the engines was damaged so badly that Young said had he known on the ascent, they would've taken the risk and ejected from the shuttle, causing it to be lost on it's first flight.

A bunch of damage to the right gear door and fuel-tank door on reentry happened as well, and the crew wasn't told about it till weeks after their return.

Going into the program, the liquid fueled main engines were considered the greatest risk, yet, they had a 99.5% reliability rate and have only suffered one in-flight failure.

STS-93, with Columbia, almost ended in what most likely would've been loss of the vehicle and crew when it had a LOX leak, yet somehow also had an electrical fault that basically canceled out the effects of the LOX leak. It's pretty fascinating to read about.

STS-27, with Atlantis, almost ended the same way Columbia did, with a substantial amount of damage to the heat tiles from the external tank foam, causing a massive amount of damage to tiling. The crew knew it as well, and thought they were going to die on re-entry. Atlantis had to undergo significant repairs after that mission.

Amazing that it (mostly) worked.

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Whatsthathum@reddit

Are you able to share your reference re: Challenger’s crew, please?

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F1shermanIvan@reddit

Right here, under Cause and Time of Death

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Cornato@reddit

Did that brick land at like 300 mph and take a small state to slow down?

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Closer to 200mph.

Between improvements to the wheel brakes and the drag chute, braking improved later in the program. But yeah, the early flights’ landings rolled out forever.

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BizarroMax@reddit

I don’t think people fully appreciate how ridiculous it is that we built this thing and it fucking worked.

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ThatHellacopterGuy@reddit

Ballsiest test flight ever.

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Visual-Constant-4815@reddit

No go-arounds with that machine!

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njsullyalex@reddit

The T-38s flying in formation with the Space Shuttle is so damn cool it’s not even funny

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Tater_Mater@reddit

I wish more of those shuttles are launched. They’re so cool looking. Also more LEGO set releases of these.

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minuteman_d@reddit

Would have been amazing to have been flying one of the chase planes. Imagine flying around and joining up on a shuttle?

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ATX2EPK@reddit

I was there. Feeling old…

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OddDragonfruit7993@reddit

I remember Bob Crippen coming in the Kroger where I worked in to buy beer a couple weeks after this.

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leeloolanding@reddit

why she look so awkward after touchdown there, was that camera angle, braking, or?

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philocity@reddit

That’s just how they look on the ground. They don’t need any positive AoA, they’re not taking off again.

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Only_Razzmatazz_4498@reddit

Yup no TOGA option here.

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TypicalRecon@reddit

The airport where I learned to fly and went to college was a NASA alternate landing site for the shuttle. NASA had a huge list of airports that could work if needed.

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Only_Razzmatazz_4498@reddit

There were a lot when they still had the military applications with polar launches from vandemberg. Once the program was scaled down with just commercial and a lot less cross range requirements a lot of those airports were eliminated but yeah the early years we crazy.

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leeloolanding@reddit

I wondered about the long flare, thank you

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enataca@reddit

Well they are. But with like maximum AoA from a totally different orientation

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WarthogOsl@reddit

I'd actually say it was probably at 0 AOA for the start of the launch, and at a negative AOA in the later stages.

If you are flying straight up, and the relative wind to the wing is straight on, you won't have any AOA.

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mynadidas5@reddit

Do we call that a “takeoff”?

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Legatus_Maximinius@reddit

We call it, "Jumping with style".

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IDoStuff100@reddit

To add: the rear gear are likely tall for tail clearance at high AoA landing, as well as needing to have enough stroke to soften the landing of a heavy vehicle.

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Lost-Actuary-2395@reddit

It looked sad

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RealSnipurs@reddit

"This is the world's greatest all electric flying machine. I'll tell you that. That was super!"

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ichii3d@reddit

I miss the Space Shuttle so much, it was just so dam cool from launch, landing, space photos etc... I know why it doesn't exist anymore, but capsules and cylinder rockets just don't feel the same.

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Lrrr81@reddit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW-8yCKwhBE

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AccountNumber1002402@reddit

Whenever I think of the Crippen virus from I Am Legend (2007) I'm reminded of Captain Bob.

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old_skul@reddit

As a young lad, 45 years ago, I was extremely jazzed by the Space Shuttle program. I was earnest enough to write a paper letter to our first Shuttle Astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen. They sent me a kind reply including this priceless memento which I keep safely tucked into my copy of the Space Shuttle Operator's Manual.

These guys are literally my heroes.

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Max_Gerber@reddit

That is - literally - awesome. So cool.

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multic94@reddit

Its insane we allowed ourselves to lose this capability. You can bring up all the corpo reasoning you want. We are worse off as a species without this capability. Especially now that the only comparable system is owned solely by a corporation owned by an oligarch.

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Nickp7186@reddit

That's not flying. That's falling, with style.

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upliftinglitter@reddit

The Space Shuttle was so cool

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Liamnacuac@reddit

Yup. I was in Fortran class. We watched on TV in the engineering department.

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erelster@reddit

Why do they countdown to the landing of the main gears and the nose wheel?

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jcamp2112@reddit

Like a modern airplane it has a radio altimeter which measures absolute altitude above the ground. The goal is for the softest touchdown, so knowing how many feet you're above the ground to control the descent rate is critical.

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Doufnuget@reddit

That’s the chase plane pilots calling out the distance to the shuttle pilots so that they have an idea of how close to the ground they are.

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TalentedTimbo@reddit

I remember the BBC commentary at the time, they thought it meant that the shuttle landed bang on schedule.

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Doufnuget@reddit

lol

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ChubbyPumpaloaf@reddit

Ohhh it was another jet. I was like “why isnt the parachute opening?!”

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timothypjr@reddit

Literally hit the “x” on the runway. It was a thing of beauty.

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Ok_Ice_6254@reddit

Looks odd without the breaking chute. most of the time when you see stock footage of a shuttle landing its from the 90s.

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voytek707@reddit

John Young went up in Gemini, Apollo and this Shuttle program vehicle. Only astronaut to do so.

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TalentedTimbo@reddit

I don't know for sure if this is true, but I heard that on the shuttle launch, Crippen's pulse rate spiked to something like 120 whereas Young's barely twitched. (Also, Young smuggled an illicit corned beef sandwich onto Gemini 3)

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ken27238@reddit

John Young is what happens when you give an astronaut cheat codes. he was bad ass.

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themorah@reddit

It's true. The same thing happened on his Apollo flight, it's mentioned here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KezwDfFcFhU&pp=ygUVam9obiB5b3VuZyBoZWFydCByYXRl

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ken27238@reddit

He the only astronaut to have piloted 4 types of spacecraft:

Gemini Capsule, Apollo CSM, Lunar lander and Shuttle.

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Janky_Pants@reddit

That’s pretty badass.

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sw1ss_dude@reddit

Beyond badass, went up twice with Gemini, twice with Apollo, walked on the Moon, flown Space Shuttle maiden space flight.

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stromson85@reddit

Columbia ❤️

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Can-Correct@reddit

First and last 🖤

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KFSX@reddit

:(

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rawboudin@reddit

What exactly qualifies it as a brick?

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GGCRX@reddit

A 4.5:1 subsonic glide ratio. That means for every 4.5 feet it goes horizontally, it drops by a foot. Compare that to a 747 which, depending on the model, has between a 15:1 and about an 18:1 glide ratio.

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Zealousideal-Fix9464@reddit

Wild considering a modern wingsuit can achieve that nowadays.

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ventus1b@reddit

That only shows how shit "wing" suits are.
A glider from the 1980s can do 44:1.

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Zealousideal-Fix9464@reddit

Theres an opinion.

They have hard limits on how big they can be and still be controllable, as well as to safely have a parachute actually deploy behind them.

At the end of the day they have to work with the size constraints of a human body. Your glider would be pretty shit too if you were limited to the wingspan of your arms.

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mynadidas5@reddit

I just googled it. Comparison: A 4.5:1 ratio is only slightly better than a helicopter with an engine failure (~4:1).

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GGCRX@reddit

And that's subsonic. At supersonic and hypersonic speeds it was closer to between 2:1 and 1:1.

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rawboudin@reddit

Hahaha, I dont know shit about shit but that does sound like a brick. So what on its structure makes it a brick then, if you don’t mind.

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GGCRX@reddit

The shape mainly.

It's hard to tell in photos but if you ever get the chance to get up close to one in a museum, it looks like a barn with wings. It's absolutely enormous. Its main design function was to be a giant garage to haul crap up to space, and not burn up on reentry which necessitated other aspects of its design that don't lend themselves to glide performance.

But it didn't need a long glide ratio because it's coming down from orbit. If you need to fly farther, just wait to de-orbit until your destination is within glide range.

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PauseAffectionate720@reddit

Great memories from my teenage years. The space shuttle captured hearts and imaginations in America and the world. The two tragedies were dark times. But all that the shuttle program accomplished should never be underestimated. Let's hope the Artemis program puts us back on that pioneering path. 🇺🇸

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LetterToAThief@reddit

This was so insanely cool to me as a child and it’s just as cool now. What an amazing vehicle.

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RepulsedCucumber@reddit

Seeing the Atlantis exhibit at KSC is incredible. Literally had me stunned.

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Scrota1969@reddit

Seriously, it completely dominated my interests back in the day. Still does I’ve watched this video about 10 times now. In my opinion it’s the coolest vehicle ever made

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sw1ss_dude@reddit

surreal to think the technology was almost half a century ago.

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Scrota1969@reddit

That’s what I’m saying, being a little kid with this in service was absolutely insane

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Maximum_Holiday_6381@reddit

Living in and around Los Angeles, I remember the sonic booms.

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Striking_Drink5464@reddit

I think it's still the most beautiful machine humans created

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RecipeHistorical2013@reddit

the matrix was dead on

"the year is 1999, the peak of your civilization"

oh yes, it was

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moonMustard@reddit

How long was the runway? I guess there was no space for goaround

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Stumpy_Dan23@reddit

23L at KEDW is: 4,580 metres/15,000 ft

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WarthogOsl@reddit

They weren't landing on the concrete runway for the first couple of flights. They landed on the lake bed.

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ventus1b@reddit

I guess there was no space for goaround

In a glider that isn't an option anyway, no matter how long the runway.

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Doufnuget@reddit

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MonsteraBigTits@reddit

45miles

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gayassfirework@reddit

Can't go around.

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garbagekr@reddit

no…. space…..

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aar550@reddit

All that money to end up back where we started.

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unreqistered@reddit

this imagery is burned into my memory, specifically that head on shot as the shuttle nears touchdown …

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FlyByPC@reddit

I remember watching it live on TV as a kid. The launch, too.

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BadTraditional401@reddit

There was a hell of a party at J. Larkins that night...

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trendingtattler@reddit

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UberKaltPizza@reddit

Watched it all live.

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OkLibrary4242@reddit

What was the runway surface?

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BaldEagleRising17@reddit

I still have my shuttle model I got in April 1983…..

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TheAgedProfessor@reddit

Honest question: how effective were the little speed brakes on the vertical stabilizer really ?

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curious-chineur@reddit

I did not recall it landing on dirt.

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For_Fox_Creek@reddit

Hypothetical question: could the space shuttle orbiter have flown around the moon, similar to the Artemis 2 mission?

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Cumulus-Crafts@reddit

The space shuttle was only made to stay in low earth orbit, so it wouldn't have the propellant/heat shielding needed to get to the moon and back

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sw1ss_dude@reddit

In short no. It didn't have the energy/propulsion to escape LEO for Trans Lunar Injection. Its life support systems were also not made for such missions. It could not have handled the much higher re-entry speeds either.

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derekvof@reddit

No - would have required significantly more propellant to get there.

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gligster71@reddit

The space shuttle was the coolest.

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Peter_Merlin@reddit

I was living in Hollywood, California, at the time and was fortunate to obtain one of the highly coveted vehicle passes for the Space Shuttle Landing Public Viewing Site on the east shore of Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base.

The Air Force had set up a vast parking area on the lakebed at the base of some low hills. The ground was littered with .50-caliber projectiles, shell casings, and pieces of Keystone B-3 bombers from when this area had been part of the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range in the 1930s and 1940s.

More than 200,000 people showed up to watch Columbia land. I wasn't thrilled with the view from the parking area, which was three miles from the runway so I hiked up to the top of the nearest hill. From there, I had a commanding view of the lakebed as well as the Forward Press Site for news media, which was a couple miles closer. A double sonic boom heralded the orbiter's arrival and I watched Columbia descend and fall into formation with two T-38 chase planes before touching down.

Not everyone was able to get into the public viewing area. I could see hundreds of cars parked along Mercury Boulevard. As soon as the spacecraft came to a halt on the lakebed runway, the drivers of a number of these vehicles pulled off the road and drove across the vast playa in an attempt to get closer. Air Force security personnel in Jeeps and helicopters rushed to intercept them. Most turned back but one motorcyclist got pretty close before being stopped. It was wild.

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aerial-fpv@reddit

RIP Columbia, 1 Feb 2003

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Cumulus-Crafts@reddit

Since the space shuttles couldn't take off on their own, they were transported to/from the space centers on top of a modified 747

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Bright_Broccoli1844@reddit

Is this the one that eventually exploded over Texas?

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Cumulus-Crafts@reddit

I can't remember which astronaut said it, but one of them described it as "sitting in your bathtub and trying to steer your house through a hurricane using the faucet"

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Amiral2022@reddit

J’avais 9 ans…

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Flat-Barracuda1268@reddit

Much softer landing than my last one...

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okiharaherbst@reddit

Beautiful flare.

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Merely-a-Flesh-Wound@reddit

Dang thats cool

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Jaded_Hold_1342@reddit

this was a super risky flight. people dont give these guys enough credit. First launch of the shuttle... no way to test it unmanned. No way to shut off the SRBs.... This flight had huge number of firsts and huge risk. Young and Crippen are rock stars.

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blingybangbang@reddit

Fun fact, usually stoic John Young was so excited simply because he was happy to be alive. There was a good chance the shuttle wouldn't make it back as nasa grossly underestimated the noise suppression needed at launch, causing quite severe damage to the orbiter.

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Aliktren@reddit

Watched this on tv, i was 12, wish I'd kept all the news clippings. So inspirational.

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46tcraft@reddit

I was 11. Got a plastic model of the space shuttle/SRB/EFT “stack” for my birthday that year. It was awesome. I thought space stuff was cool back then. I still think it’s cool. Anything space or flying related is fascinating.

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hamcheesetoastie@reddit

Honestly fucking blows my mind that the shuttle landed without any jet propulsion after entry. Just gravity, flaps and maths

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BigFatModeraterFupa@reddit

what i'm curious is how did they get the space shuttle back to florida for the next launch? this looks like texas or nevada

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Bigbang-Seeowhee@reddit

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LounBiker@reddit

I don't think there will ever be a better photo than this in aviation.

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ventus1b@reddit

Ehem.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/umife7/space_shuttle_enterprise_on_top_of_the_shuttle/

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LounBiker@reddit

Yeah, that wins.

Thanks, I love it

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morasscavities@reddit

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GGCRX@reddit

It's California.

They put it on top of a specially-modified 747 and flew it back to Florida.

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Badrear@reddit

What I love about this is that it sounds like a typical sarcastic Reddit answer, but it’s exactly what they did.

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Here_4_the_INFO@reddit

I watched this live (on TV) and it wasn't until today that I learned they had only one chance to land that thing, that is crazy.

Also, didn't they have to stay on board after landing for a few hours to "reacclimate" to gravity or am I just making that up in my memory?

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WestlyS@reddit

Space glider still takes the cake for the coolest void craft we've built as a species so far ❤️

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danit0ba94@reddit

No drag chutes?

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mememe822@reddit

Why is it not burnt like everything else that comes back from space?

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pantone_mugg@reddit

The black tiles saved them.

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rewanpaj@reddit

that mustve been so cool to be the t38 pilot

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brooklynhomeboy@reddit

Why does it look like they landed on a dirt covered runway? And I thought they used parachute braking?

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derekvof@reddit

54 of the shuttle landings occurred at Edwards on the dry lakebed. 8 at Edwards & 1 at White Sands before they ever used the Kennedy runway.

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ClearedInHot@reddit

There are runways in the dry lakebed adjacent to Edwards.

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Better-Temporary-146@reddit

The parachute was developed for landing until the late 80’s.

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ChmeeWu@reddit

They landed in the desert thats why. Super long runways in the dirt.

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airport-codes@reddit

IATA	ICAO	Name	Location
STS	KSTS	Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport	Santa Rosa, California, United States

I am a bot.

^(If you are the OP and this comment is inaccurate or unwanted, reply below with "bad bot" and it will be deleted.)

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Raguleader@reddit

Swing and a miss lol

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RBeck@reddit

More like

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organicdelivery@reddit

Hay now, KSTS has a 6,000 ft runway, and just started Southwest service.

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MyHorseIsDead@reddit

Thank you airport-codes bot

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Technical_Control403@reddit

It’s got to be a physical challenge in itself piloting from zero gravity for a week down to Earth

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sw1ss_dude@reddit

I wonder how can they even sleep before they bring that thing down from Orbit. They were really a different breed

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VelvetMoonBloom@reddit

this kind of stuff always blows my mind 😭 like people really just decided to go to space and made it happen… meanwhile I’ll sit there overthinking the smallest decision for hours lol it really puts things into perspective in the weirdest way

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Internal-Broccoli274@reddit

Money will make all those decisions easy. I have a company card for work stuff and regularly spend thousands of dollars in a single swipe for work.

But it takes a few business days and an act of congress for me to decide if that $15 meal from McDonald's is worth it.

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whywouldthisnotbea@reddit

It isn't

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derekvof@reddit

I was lucky enough to be there 45 years ago as a 6th grader with my childhood best friend watching this landing. Gave me a lifelong interest in space and the space program. Funnily my wife who is three years younger was also there with her grandparents watching the same landing. We met over 15 years after this - funny coincidence.

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EastReserve1361@reddit

What was the speed at touchdown?

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UW_Ebay@reddit

Thought they had parachutes too? Maybe later shuttles?

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NxPat@reddit

Didn’t they use or have chutes available?

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ConstantCampaign2984@reddit

I feel some kinda way about being older than the shuttle program.

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Bison_Aggressive@reddit

Can someone with some knowledge help me here, please.

I may have watched 'Airplane' too many times to wonder this, but why dont they use that space shuttle to fly to the moon, instead of the capsule they used? I get the solar power panels they use, just not sure about the particular craft.

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MaddingtonBear@reddit

Shuttle didn't have solar panels; it used fuel cells for power. Those shiny things on the inside of the cargo bay doors were radiators.

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Bison_Aggressive@reddit

Thank you.

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i-smell-really-nice@reddit

I thought there was a parachute to help slow them down. Did I imagine that?

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CharAznableLoNZ@reddit

I think that was added to later flights when they found how much weight they were trying to slow down and how much it roasted the brakes.

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CharAznableLoNZ@reddit

The shuttle was such a good idea that never got executed the way it was intended. The whole point of it was a craft that could be washed, waxed and sent back into space. Instead it was heavily rebuilt between each flight making it an astronomically expensive program.

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concretetroll60@reddit

How fast was it going when it touched down? I thought some have a parachute to slow them down?

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Youwin737@reddit

Touchdown at 211 mph. They didn't use a parachute until sts-49 in 1992.

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MaddingtonBear@reddit

235 was the target. The chute only came about in the early 90s.

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Marion323@reddit

Goosebumps

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GhostRiders@reddit

Flying Brick..

I will also add one of if not the most stunning machine humankind has ever built

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trk29@reddit

What a kickass vehicle

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megamisanthropic@reddit

Did i miss the parachute?

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velournoctra@reddit

this is so cool but also kinda surreal… I remember being a kid and thinking space shuttles were basically magic, like real life sci-fi happening above us while I was just doing homework 😭 now seeing how “recent” this actually was makes me feel like I missed out on an era I would’ve been completely obsessed with… something about it still feels way more romantic than tech today for some reason

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NerdyComfort-78@reddit

I was 8 years old. I miss the shuttles.

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3bugsdad@reddit

A.What was the touchdown speed? B. I recall shuttles deploying a chute to brake. Did this video end before that, or was that only on later shuttle missions?

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