First Space Shuttle Launch - worth seeing
Godspeed, John Young, commander of the first Space Shuttle flight.
= new reply since forum marked as read
These were turning points in the history of the space program.
at a friend's house in Paris. What pride and what wonder, landing was one hell of a glide.
and
RIP Commander Young
before moving over to another project.................
God Speed John Young.....................
to have been born in 1950, and I was able to watch the United States Space Program (in it's original iteration) from it's infancy, to it's demise. From Sputnik to the Space Shuttle, the "Space Race" always intrigued me, as it did most of the nation. I remember how everyone freaked out about Sputnik, with it's steady "beep, beep, beep". We all gathered in the yard at night to witness what we thought would be certain death from above. Those Ruskies had beaten us to the punch, and the fear (from what, we didn't really know) was palpable. It enveloped us like a cloak of star-dust. We knew life on Earth would never be the same again.
I have so many fond memories from NASA's heyday. There are way too many to chronicle here, but I have them in my mind, in a special compartment, and no one can take those away. Needless to say my first trip to Cape Kennedy (they changed it back to Canaveral in '73) was like a pilgrimage to the holy land. I've been there fifteen times since. To stand in the Block House on launch pad LC-5, where Alan Shepard became the first American in Space is awe inspiring. The ashtrays on the consoles are still holding the cigarette butts from the day's launch. 'Kent' cigarettes, I remembered, as if it was something important I'd need to know later.
OK, I won't bore anyone further.
RIP John Young. You were a big part of the early NASA triumphs, and will be remembered forever as a steely-eyed Missile Man.
