For those who grew up after the endless coverage of the Apollo program in the 60s and 70s, the sight of OV-102, better known as the Space Shuttle Columbia, on Route 39A in the Kennedy Space Center was a little disturbing. Compared to the smooth lines of a Saturn V rocket, the spacecraft unveiled on April 12, 1981, looked like an ugly beast. It looked like an airplane stuck on a grain silo, with some Roman candles on it. Everything about it seems the opposite of what we would expect from spaceflight, but as the seconds dragged on today 40 years ago, we still had the hope that this strange outfit would not disappoint.
Initially, when the main engines ignited, it seemed like Columbia was indeed disappointing. The liquid hydrogen exhaust plume looks anemic, at least compared to the jig of light bulb that shot up from every rocket I’ve ever seen. But then the amazing – and as it turns out later – deadly dangerous – solid rocket amplifiers are brought to life, and Columbia pretty much jumps off the loading path. Americans were on their way to space again after a six-year absence, and I remember the astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen cheering as I watched the cover with my dad early Sunday morning.
STS-1
The seed for what would become the Space Transportation System (STS), which was the official name for the Space Shuttle program, was sown even before the famous flight of Apollo 11 in 1969. The incredible cost of building an almost completely consumable rocket launched to get astronauts orbiting in orbit became unsustainable, and so the focus shifted to building a new generation of spacecraft with reuse in mind. Dozens of ideas were driven, but eventually the rocket-reinforced aerospace concept won and the STS program was funded by Congress in 1972.
The first flight from Columbia on that April morning, which coincided happily with the twentieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s ride to space aboard Vostok-1, was in many ways a record-breaker. Not only was this the first orbital flight of a reusable spacecraft, but it was also the first time America had a girl’s flight. Every rocket used up to that point for crew missions had at least one fly without a crew. Columbia was tested on the cushion test with the main engines on, and the sister ship Enterprise did extensive printing tests for approach and landing training, but everything between the countdown clock and the zero to the end of the entry had never been done before.
STS-1 was a short mission filled with technical tests; it was meant to make sure that the orbit is spatial and does very little if any science. Young and Crippen stayed informed for a little over two days before dribbling across the Indian Ocean, embarking on the unauthorized Mach 24 redevelopment process. Much of the early maneuvers for re-entry were handled automatically by Columbia’s on-board computers, but Commander Young eventually took the baton and led the spacecraft to a smooth landing on the dry multi-beds of the Edwards Air Force Base in California. STS-1 was completed and the age of the Space Shuttle began.
Columbia’s Legacy
As with any large system, the design of the Shuttle was a compromise, but given the high profile as a successor to Apollo and the rival factions competing for the capabilities it wanted to see in a launch system, it’s a wonder that the spacecraft ever came down. the ground. Together with the test article Enterprise, the five STS orbits – Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor – are called the most complex machines ever built by humans. Its truth is probably open to debate, but there is no doubt that the complexity of the orbits was at odds with its reusability, and that the desired fast turnaround times of each orbit were not produced.
Yet the Shuttle fleet delivered a total of 133 successful missions, transported 355 individuals to space, and delivered thousands of tons of payloads in orbit and beyond. The Hubble Space Telescope, as well as its initial delivery, and later repairs, were thanks to the Shuttle, and many of the ISS modules were delivered in the spacious boot of the orbit. The interplanetary missions that began in the orbit of orbits – especially Magellan, Galileo and Ulysses – still pay dividends in terms of understanding the nature of the universe.
Yet the Space Shuttle program has suffered some catastrophic losses. As much as I remember the launch of STS-1, I remember much more the loss of Challenger during the launch of STS-51-L in 1986, and the redevelopment of Columbia at STS-107 in 2003. The losses plus the failure to delivering the rapid turnaround and the lower cost required to maintain a reasonable rate of launches were the last nails in the coffin for the STS program, which was canceled after the landing of STS-135 in 2011. The program still remained strong, and for 30 years it was the only way for America to get wage burdens on top.