STS-1 35 year ago today

Beeker

Sunday April 12 1981. I still remember the excitement of that morning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NjH0fumaIs

The One Doctor

The commander of STS1 (John Young) said that if he'd known how badly the Orbiter was damaged due to overpressure at launch he would have ejected immediately. Entry was dangerous as well due to engineering errors. Apparently the nosegear leg had buckled during entry (plasma got into the wheel well) and only just managed to support the Orbiter on touchdown.

shedweller

The One Doctor wrote: »

The commander of STS1 (John Young) said that if he'd known how badly the Orbiter was damaged due to overpressure at launch he would have ejected immediately. Entry was dangerous as well due to engineering errors. Apparently the nosegear leg had buckled during entry (plasma got into the wheel well) and only just managed to support the Orbiter on touchdown.

I need pics!

namloc1980

And 55 years since Vostok 1...April 12 is a landmark date in spaceflight.

Wibbs

The One Doctor wrote: »

The commander of STS1 (John Young) said that if he'd known how badly the Orbiter was damaged due to overpressure at launch he would have ejected immediately.

I did not know that tOD. Interesting indeed and Young is not a chap given to hyperbole. That lad is the consummate astronaut and test pilot. Under "Right Stuff" in the dictionary, see him. Amazing chap.

That video clip seems to get across the speed of her when she clears the tower. Maybe it's the multiple angles?

I remember that so well. Another thing I remember very clearly is when in orbit they noticed missing tiles and there was all sorts of press speculation about whether these may be an issue, or worse unseen ones on the underside would doom the crew.



I've a particular memory of that mission and those tiles because I had been in Florida on holiday with the folks the previous year and we'd done the tour of Kennedy and there was much excitement and we got brought out to the new launch pad(I was lucky to see a launch a year after). Needless to say I bought two model kits of the shuttle(monogram and Revell). I was also later given a mission patch from STS-1. I still have it about the place. When it did launch I rang the US embassy to see if I could get some press pictures, but they were really dismissive of me. I suppose they were inundated by small boys like myself .

I finally got a load of press release pics, but from a pretty unlikely source considering… The as it was then Soviet embassy. Yep. The previous year we had a class project to write a report on a country and I chose the Soviet Union and had called around, as you do, to ask for some literature about the place. They were bloody brilliant. Brought me in, showed me around, made me some Russian tea and gave me an armful of stuff, books and such. So when the shuttle went up and the Americans were a bust, my dad suggested I ring them(knowing him, no doubt out of devilment) and they couldn't have been cooler, or more helpful and gave me an envelope of official NASA press release pics(really high quality photo paper), including shots of the tiles, orbital photos of the Earth(Tibet IIRC) and the launch. They also gave me stuff about the Soviet programme. I still have that stuff about the place. I must try and dig it up and post some of it.

So yeah I got souvenirs of the first Shuttle mission from the "dastardly Commies". They gave me tea and biccies the second time too. Man this thread brings back some memories.

It also reminds me how much real excitement was going on about the Shuttle. Yeah with hindsight we have the cynical and the naysayers and I do get that, but it's my humble that for all her faults, the Shuttle was a good thing overall. It was at least an attempt at a reusable "routine" spacecraft.

JupiterKid

I was 6 at the time and don't clearly remember the first shuttle launch but I do remember later launches and missions. As a kid I was amazed at the power of each shuttle launch - I thought (and still think) that the orbiter was a beautiful, amazing vehicle.

Years later (1990) I was at Cape Canaveral with my Dad and we saw a shuttle on the launch pad from a mile or two away. I thought it was so fascinating.

Itssoeasy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt6Bt1pZ4Is

shedweller

What a machine. For sheer spectacle alone it delivered.
I was 6 also and i remember my dad calling me in to watch news coverage of it. I remember the news was showing the times on the oms pod missing and i was thinking they were poorly glued on or some such. So now i find out 30 odd years later that they hadn't any water spray noise supression!
Learn something every day! Cheers lads!

The One Doctor

Wibbs wrote: »

I did not know that tOD. Interesting indeed and Young is not a chap given to hyperbole. That lad is the consummate astronaut and test pilot. Under "Right Stuff" in the dictionary, see him. Amazing chap.

From spaceflight.de:

The orbiter's heat shield was damaged when an overpressure wave from the solid rocket booster caused a forward RCS oxidizer strut to fail. The same overpressure wave also forced the shuttle's "body flap" – an extension on the orbiter's underbelly that helps to control pitch during reentry - more than 5° out of position and into an angle well beyond the point where cracking or rupture of the hydraulic system would have been expected. Such damage would have made a controlled descent nearly impossible, with John Young later admitting that had the crew been privy to the potential for catastrophe, they would have flown the shuttle up to a safe altitude and ejected, causing Columbia to have been lost on the first flight. Initial analysis of this anomaly suggested that the body flap was out of position due to a misprediction of the pitching moment at hypersonic speeds.

The strike plate next to the forward latch of Columbia's external tank door was melted and distorted due to excess heat exposure during reentry. This heat was attributed to an improperly installed tile adjacent to the plate.

During remarks at a 2003 gathering, John Young stated that a protruding tile gap filler ducted hot gas into the right main landing gear well, which caused significant damage, including the buckling of the landing gear. Buckling of the door, but not the landing gear, was documented in the post-flight anomaly report.

Beeker

This is also reported in the new book "Into the Black" by Rowland White. I'm currently reading it, its about the build up to STS-1. A most enjoyable read
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Black-Rowland-White-ebook/dp/B00O30HFJC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460552576&sr=1-1&keywords=into+the+black

shedweller

Beeker wrote: »

This is also reported in the new book "Into the Black" by Rowland White. I'm currently reading it, its about the build up to STS-1. A most enjoyable read
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Black-Rowland-White-ebook/dp/B00O30HFJC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1460552576&sr=1-1&keywords=into+the+black

I just got that. Cheers Beeker!

josip

I remember watching it on our 12" black and white Sanyo (portable) TV after we came home from 11 o'clock mass on Sunday.
Not sure which was the more advanced tech, our TV or the shuttle.

Ghost Train

Interesting reading on Wikipedia that about the classified cameras taking photos of the damage to orbiter and that they'd have that sort of resolution

Always wondered about the ejection seats they had for first shuttle flights... how did it work with the roof, would the roof come off or what

The astronauts' on-orbit visual inspection showed significant damage to the thermal protection tiles on the OMS/RCS pods at the orbiter's aft end, and John Young reported that two tiles on the nose looked like someone had taken "big bites out of them."[6] Classified cameras at a United States Air Force satellite tracking station in Hawaii took high-resolution photographs of the shuttle in orbit, and NASA concluded that the damage didn't constitute a "major problem."[7] Post-flight inspection of Columbia confirmed that approximately 16 undensified tiles near the OMS pod had been lost during ascent.[8]

The One Doctor

NASA concluded that the damage didn't constitute a "major problem."[8]

They said that about the ascent damage to Columbia on its last mission too.

Ghost Train

The One Doctor wrote: »

They said that about the ascent damage to Columbia on its last mission too.

Well I think that was just based on launch video, Nasa refused the offer from DoD to get on orbit imaging of damage on the last mission, even though engineers requested and wanted it... given that they could get photos in 1981 ability in 2003 must have been as good, probably much better. I guess weather, orbit, lighting etc might mean photos not guaranteed but could have tried

Beeker

Ghost Train wrote: »

Interesting reading on Wikipedia that about the classified cameras taking photos of the damage to orbiter and that they'd have that sort of resolution

Always wondered about the ejection seats they had for first shuttle flights... how did it work with the roof, would the roof come off or what

Yeah two panels would have ejected from the roof above the pilots.

Ghost Train

STS-31, 26 years ago today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI_gvIipCkA

JupiterKid

Ghost Train wrote: »

STS-31, 26 years ago today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI_gvIipCkA

This was the Hubble Space Telescope launch, right? I was at Cape Canaveral just a few weeks before this.

Ghost Train

JupiterKid wrote: »

This was the Hubble Space Telescope launch, right? I was at Cape Canaveral just a few weeks before this.

Yes that was it... one of the highest or second highest orbits the space shuttle flew to during a mission 615km. Did love watching the last live space walks to service the telescope, STS-125