back to article 30 years ago, NASA put Challenger behind it and sent a Space Shuttle back out into the black

While NASA continues its 60th birthday celebrations and Russia gives a slight cough and gestures vaguely at the silver beach-ball sized Sputnik it flung into orbit 61 years ago this week, another anniversary ticked over: it is 30 years since the Space Shuttle returned to flight. STS-26, flown by Space Shuttle Discovery, glided …

  1. defiler

    What a machine.

    What a ludicrous, ridiculous, magnificent, spectacular machine.

    My 9-year-old son still wants to go up in one.

    1. Dr. G. Freeman

      Re: What a machine.

      "My 9-year-old son still wants to go up in one."

      I'm 37 and still want to go in a space shuttle. Won't grow out of it.

      1. defiler

        Re: What a machine.

        I'm 37 and still want to go in a space shuttle.

        Of course, but he's too young to remember them flying. Still, I just checked with him, and given the choice of Apollo/Saturn V, Soyuz or STS, he went with the Space Shuttle without a pause.

        They just fire little imaginations in a way that normal rockets don't manage to...

      2. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: What a machine.

        37 years after first launched, 8 years after its last flight, the Shuttle is still a shorthand for "future technology". The impact it made in the public conscience can't be overstated.

        Even now commercials that try to sell anything advanced or technological (from razors to phone plans) feature the red and white behemoth, riding on a cloud of smoke.

        Undoubtedly, one of the greatest machines ever built

      3. PassingStrange

        Re: What a machine.

        "I'm 37 and still want to go in a space shuttle. Won't grow out of it."

        I'm 64, and it is sobering to think that Challenger was actually half a lifetime ago. And I still want to get into space.

        1. MyffyW Silver badge

          Re: What a machine.

          The Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) is without a doubt one of the most intricate mechanisms humankind has ever constructed. And the concept of a reusable space plane is pure '50s dreaming. Flawed but awesome.

  2. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    I salute the men and women who risked their lives - and who is an inspiration to us all.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Remember watching the launch live on TV, brave people who push the frontiers by going into space on top of such a potentially huge chemical bomb.

    1. Zebo-the-Fat

      I saw it fly

      By pure luck I was able to watch the launch from Florida, I was on holiday doing the Disney thing with my kids. I got talking to someone who realised that I liked "spacy things" and offered me a free ticket to see the launch.

      I think we were about 5 miles from the pad and it was one of the loudest things I ever heard, I had seen other launches on TV and heard the sound "crackle" I just assumed that this was the microphones overloading, hearing it live and the thing crackled like gods own crisp packet!

      1. Dave 32
        Pint

        Re: I saw it fly

        I, too, was able to see one launch. In my case, it from a bridge about 9 miles south of the launch pad, in April of 1985 (Pre-Challenger). From that distance, I watched it launch and ascend in total silence, except for a radio one of the other viewers had brought, which was keeping us advised of the launch status. 45 seconds after the engines were lit, the sound finally reached me, and literally shook the ground.

        Dave

        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

          I envy you guys :)

    2. wallaby

      I was at Space Camp watching the first launch after the twin towers went down (couldn't get any closer), when the main engines ignited every cell in my body was instantly vibrating - that and the instant daylight it created were awe inspiring.

  4. Nobby_uk

    Take a ride.

    An excellent video of a space shuttle launch.

    https://sites.google.com/site/ascentcommemoratingshuttle/

  5. CAPS LOCK

    Space exploration?

    No one ever said is was going to be easy...

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Space exploration?

      No but it took congress, a confusion of priorities, reliance on a dozen different agencies with competing goals and Nasa bureaucracy to make it so difficult - and dangerous

  6. Jay Lenovo

    Space Shuttle - Pop Culture Favorite

    There's something very inspirational about a spacecraft that flies into space and lands back on the ground.

    The current solution of capsules rocketing off, but returning like a bowel movement hitting the water, are not the visions of space travel we would prefer to embrace.

    1. Alister

      Re: Space Shuttle - Pop Culture Favorite

      There's something very inspirational about a spacecraft that flies into space and lands back on the ground.

      That's why, whatever your thoughts on Mr Musk, the SpaceX booster landings tick all the boxes - it's how spacecraft should be, as we've seen for over half a century of Sci-Fi movies.

      1. Uncle Slacky Silver badge
        Meh

        Re: Space Shuttle - Pop Culture Favorite

        Meh - I prefer the Skylon: https://vimeo.com/42682980

    2. Tom 7

      Re: Space Shuttle - Pop Culture Favorite

      The Young Ones would like to argue with you!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Space Shuttle - Pop Culture Favorite

      > "The current solution of capsules rocketing off, but returning like a bowel movement hitting the water, are not the visions of space travel we would prefer to embrace."

      That was true even in the early sixties when safe re-entry methods were first being worked out. I recall one or two stories about potentially deploying some kind of airfoil after the re-entry gees ended, but apparently those methods were all deemed too risky, compared to good old parachutes. Heavier too.

      Thus the bowel movement approach was the gold brick standard (ahem), until it was shown that the airfoil can be part of the heatshield too, and as a bonus, will allow precise control over where the ship would come down. A space shuttle re-entry consisted of a series of sweeping flat s-turns across the sky, shedding velocity while using dynamic lift to stay out of the thickening air below until enough speed was shed to be safe. That kept gee forces down to 3 gees or less, unlike the high gee re-entry of dumb capsules.

      However, that large heatshield came with its own not inconsiderable costs, which I believe ultimately doomed the Space Shuttle going into the future. The beauty of SpaceX's method is that most of the expensive gear is now savable, while returning passengers via the safe, cheap, and reliable Bowel Movement Method.

  7. Tikimon

    Irrelevant musing, move along...

    I remember well the day Challenger broke up. I wondered if they would ever again fly a shuttle, if the beancounters in Congress would use it as an excuse to finally kill off any meaningful space program. I also remember when Discovery took to the skies again. I had made sure to be home, and was glued to the TV screen. The countdown seemed to have a half-life, and a liftoff point that would never come. But of course, it finally did. The engines roared into flame, the gantry clamps released, and the orbiter broke free of the planet, reaching for space.

    I found myself jumping up and down and screaming inarticulately. That really surprised me! I never felt like that before, even for the first shuttle flight. When Discovery lifted off, it was like a dam broke, releasing all the hopes and worry of years. Finally quit yelling and just stared wordlessly at the screen, deaf to the commentary, simply watching it climbing and climbing. We were really going back to space.

    I'll never forget either day, the bad and the good. (or the loss of Columbia, but that's another story)

    1. Mike 125

      Re: Irrelevant musing, move along...

      "but brought with it a harbinger of the fate that would eventually befall Columbia, 15 years later."

      >I'll never forget either day, the bad and the good. (or the loss of Columbia, but that's another story)

      I'll never forget either tragedy. They were so different and the causes so diverse and complex. Years ago, I spent hours reading up all the engineering detail from the investigations- riveting stuff to any space nerd.

      Both events are perfect examples of the benefits of hindsight. The warning signs seem so obvious now. We should learn from that, but I doubt we will.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Magnificent men...

    and their flying machines.

    Awesome stuff. Apollo fired my imagination as a kid and gave me a life long passion.

    Thank you to you all.

  9. Chairman of the Bored

    How's this for thoughtful?

    Starting with the STS-26 return to flight mission and continuing until the end of NASA's manned program, the Shelton family would send a bouquet of roses to Mission Control. One red rose for each astronaut on mission, and one white rose in remembrance of those who had been lost.

    Apparently it took NASA a while to figure out who was sending them. A simple but thoughtful gesture that probably means a lot to those who hold life and death responsibility over astronauts riding perhaps the most complicated gadget ever manufactured.

    Also, as a parent I've got to hand it to the mom and dad - setting an example like that is top shelf parenting technique.

  10. Uncle Ron

    Politics

    So long as the Right is in charge of American politics, there will be no space program. There will be huge profits for space contractors, but no space program. Some commercial companies have and will grow tired of the fits and starts and camels-designed-by-committee that come out of the ignorant, incompetent, corrupt political process, and these commercial companies have and will do great things. But, IMHO, NASA is a dead duck. NASA needs to go back to designing air-foils and that's it. When I was 60, my joints started to ache and my attention span went back to when I was 8. RIP NASA.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Politics - NASA needs to go back to designing air-foils and that's it.

      I think you have confused NACA and NASA.

      NACA did an awful lot more than design airfoils, too.

      1. Uncle Ron

        Re: Politics - NASA needs to go back to designing air-foils and that's it.

        NASA still designs airfoils.

  11. aberglas

    A total failure for cheap launches

    Cost per kg launched over the life of the project was huge compared to single use rockets.

    Between the shuttle and the ISS the guts has been taken out of the Science program. We could have had the Webb telescope many years ago. And for the true cost of fixing the Hubble they could have launched another.

    Madness. But perhaps enlightened madness.

    1. Uncle Ron

      Re: A total failure for cheap launches

      "And for the true cost of fixing the Hubble they could have launched another."

      We do have "another." We have about 25 others. Trouble is, the others are all aimed DOWN. They are called "Keyhole" satellites. Owned by the CIA. Hubble was even built in the same factory as the Keyholes. With a total and complete firewall between personnel and spaces. If the people who build Keyholes were only allowed to consult with the Hubble people, Hubble would never have been blind in the first place. The Keyhole people saw it coming and couldn't say anything. We spend more money on defense than anything other than healthcare. My question is, "WTF are we defending?"

  12. Pete4000uk

    A dangerous ship

    The space shuttle never lived up to its promise. It also killed two crews. I watched the Columbia mission launch. I watched them floating in space dòing their thing. I also watched as those in mission control realised something was wrong.

    The Soyuz is the safest way to get into space. But it will never be as fun as strapping yourself in to a hypersonic spaceplane and lighting those SRBs. Those who flew them had the ultimate ride of a lifetime.

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