SPACE SHUTTLE: MISSION TO THE FUTURE

[Music] a new door to space opens the space shuttle everything that has gone before in space This Magnificent treasure is prologue we are beginning a new and exciting age signaled by the flight of Colombia into Earth's [Music] orbit Columbia is the first of a fleet of ships of the space transportation system Sy Houston columia the others to follow read you loud names which evoke the spirit of our purpose on this new ocean Challenger Discovery Atlantis and the monitors are all set up the working environment aboard will be quite ordinary yet the meaning of all this to us is far from ordinary okay Joe I think I'm uh about done here I'm going to head on downstairs and fix a [Music] sunbe space shuttle taking as many as four satellites into orbit has the capability of retrieving orbiting satellites repairing them in space or bringing them back to Earth okay Houston Columbia we had a good IMU alignment uh time was [Music] 45557 and numbers are on the tape and we did get the verification Roger we copy okay 205 and 20,100 20, 230 historian James a Mitchner in an address to Congress said there are moments in history when challenges occur of such a compelling nature that to miss them is to miss the whole meaning of an epic space is such a [Music] [Applause] challenge I'm James Mitchner for most of my working years on this planet I've been chronicling the rise and fall of human systems if there is one thing I'm convinced of from years of studying history it's that enemies do not destroy Nations time and the loss of will brings them down to see that this does not happen to this nation of ours the United States cannot Retreat from The Challenge of our age each era of human history progresses to a point at which it is eligible to wrestle with the great problem of that period for the ancient Greeks it was the organization of soci Society for the medievalists the spelling out of their relationship to God for the men of the 15th and 16th centuries the Mastery of the oceans and for us it is the determination of how mankind can live in harmony on the finite Globe we call Earth while establishing relationships to an infinite space okay got evba on uh we're waiting for s final suit pressure adjustment I am struck with Wonder at the energy being expended by thousands of people not only in the United States but around the world who have worked long and hard to overcome technical setbacks to make space travel available not only to astronauts but to anyone who wants to Journey above our planet and work in Space the space transportation syst system they've developed introduces the decade of the 80s to the spaceship Colombia the first of many spacecraft that will be propelled not on the top of expensive one-time boosters but by a space transportation system that can be used economically over and over again our Endeavor guided and informed by a history of successes in space flight is is of immense proportions 10,000 NASA employees at six research centers across our nation and other centers in Canada and Europe the effort has been Advanced through over 5,000 contractors government and Industry in over 25 States and 14 [Music] countries it has challenged our creative and Engineering genius in both its form and scope that it has been complex and difficult is not deniable but then what monuments to our progress can we name that have been [Music] easy some say it is our destiny to fill the wide vessel of the universe a demanding role from which we must not retreat The Hanger we call the Vehicle Assembly Building is so large its Dimensions so vast that Robert goddard's first rocket launch would not have escaped its [Music] confines Colombia through her we expect much and now sits our expectation in the air cradled to be m to the two solid rocket boosters and the projectile shaped external [Music] tank okay we're rolling out now today is the day the shuttle passes through the eye of the needle aboard the elephanttine crawler transporter she Journeys to pad 39 it is a trip made with deliberate [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] speed [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w Landing side capability launch control rehearses polishes skills techniques procedures of that day to come Rog right engine You Got Dat Back AC wrapped in attention and detail Colombia now is not many days from her destination two 15,000 ft runways one in California and the other in Florida will accept the returning ships when operational missions begin downrange stations report and columia is go for launch clear key on all ciruit Tech Houston R let me give you a quick voice and King check Houston Mark uh [Music] [Applause] minute the countdown has begun [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] ignition after 2 minutes of flight the solid rocket boosters burn out and fall [Music] away they are recovered in the Atlantic 175 mies down range from pad 3 to be towed ashore and used again for another shuttle flight the main engines continue to burn and the external tank now empty is jettison to fall into a remote ocean area space shuttle is in Earth orbit 150 Mi above our [Music] planet [Music] [Music] an shuttle vahan the astronauts moving with the rotation of the earth fly into night and into day many times on each orbit in a 54-hour flight they will see 36 sunrises and 36 magnificent sunsets as they orbit above the planet Earth looking down on clouds and Life [Music] [Applause] Below good morning this is Matthew James in Melbourne re-entry poses one of the most critical moments for the crew of the Orbiter as the shuttle slows from an orbital speed of 18,000 mph aerodynamic friction as the shuttle falls into the heavy atmosphere generates temperatures of up to 2800° the crew on the Colombia have now pointed the nose of the shuttle 40° above the Horizon at this attitude they now begin re-entry [Music] the 31,000 silica fiber tiles on the craft must reject and absorb this heat without transferring it to the interior of the spacecraft at the goodar center those on duty await worth that contact again has been made to determine if ever the onboard computers Guided by Mission Control Houston and the pilots fly the shuttle back toward Earth a long very fast Glide from mid-pacific to California first at Hypersonic speeds then supersonic then as the crew makes an approach to The Landing at NASA's Dryden Center the air speed slows [Music] [Applause] [Music] dramatically the Orbiter will be taken to the processing facility for a complete checkout before its next mission progress is not a monopoly of the United States the space transportation system will be used by nations of the world payload space aboard shuttle has been booked ahead by many nations the signature of the program again reflects the words our astronauts left on the moon we came in peace For All Mankind and once again Colombia stands ready to be m to the solid boosters and the external tank for another mission each Orbiter is rated to fly up to 100 [Music] Missions Astronaut John Young of the veteran of the geminy and Apollo programs and the spacecraft commander of the first shuttle crew to go into orbit astronaut Bob krippen space shuttle pilot on the first flight both of these men experienced high performance aircraft Pilots Young and crippin the Specialists analyze everything the procedure of a good test pilot each step is questioned tested Solutions are tried rehearsed and the emergency is again [Music] simulated this is the lesson we have learned in over 20 years of Mann space [Music] flight in the cockpit or the cabin of the shuttle a pressure suit is not necessary work outside in the near vacuum of space requires a pressure suit the astronauts flying in a military jet transport are given brief moments of weightlessness as the pilot Maneuvers the aircraft Bob krippin experiences this as he works in his pressure [Music] suit he must learn to use tools the problem of handling things with his gloves on is compounded by weightless flight [Music] astronauts Mission Specialists and payload Specialists have a preview of the exhilaration and joy of space [Music] flight survival School taught by the Air Force it includes a bit of Sky sailing and Par parachute [Music] training at NASA's Marshall space flight center they experience underwater training with a full-scale mockup of the payload [Music] Bay crew members work out some of the problems they may encounter in weightless condition [Music] they find that movement underwater under neutral buoyancy strangely approximates the conditions they find in [Music] space in the next 5 years more than 60 space shuttle flights have been [Music] scheduled we will see Colombia Challenger Discovery and Atlantis launching into space from pad [Music] 39 the earth and its terrain can be a barrier to Communications isolating people and cultures for some Nations it meant safety and protection and an advancing [Music] civilization others have stayed the same the struggle has been to live food water with satellites a new age is Dawning for all [Music] people okay everything's in position now the role of the mission specialist really starts once the Orbiter gets on orbit and at that time it's the mission specialist who's really in charge of of the Orbiter Mission um the mission specialist role could could be anything from opening the payload bay doors to using the remote manipulator system which is a a big 50ft long arm that's made by the Canadians um to deploy a satellite which we'd carry up in the cargo bay or retrieve a satellite that might already be in orbit if there's an experiment that's being U carried Along by the shuttle on this Mission it' be the mission specialist that would operate the EXP experiment anything that the Orbiter might be asked to do on that particular Mission uh the mission specialist will be asked to carry that [Music] out science places the creation of the universe 14 billion years ago okay Joe the camera's zoomed in so if you could go to free drift this shuttle launched telescope may see galaxies at the very time they were formed revealing the structure and history of [Music] creation deep space probes will add to our knowledge of our solar system of the far planets and the cosmology of the [Music] galaxies in the coming decades the shuttle will place networks of satellites into Earth orbit we will manage our resources our crops our land and water weather forecasting and communication on a global [Music] scale brayman West Germany where Essa the European Space Agency is building the space lab which will fly aboard space shuttle in Europe we are well aware of the space activi that's taking place in Russia and in the United States and we would like to participate in similar activities to benefit from the same technological advances VBA Arles a physicist from the Netherlands a mission and payload specialist and a member of the European Space Agency there has been a large interest in doing man and space activities and back in 73 they decided to build a space laboratory which would be carried along in space with the American shuttle about 10 different countries members of the European Space Agency participated in the funding and development of this laboratory Germany being one of the bigger participants it has Insight in its pressurized modu an atmosphere which is very similar on earth scientists eventually will go up in this Laboratory to do all kind of experiments in space okay Houston Columbia we're reading you loud and clear go ahead Roger we got that done let's see Joe we're about a minute from the burn from the okay space shuttle will indeed be our Workhorse in space with as many as four satellites orbited on one Mission okay we're all set heing pressure is good stand by for the execute 30 seconds the Department of Defense will have payloads on a third of the more than 400 flights scheduled over the next 12 [Music] [Music] years space is not now an American Soviet Monopoly and it will be less so as time goes on we are approaching the point where the world community and not just a few Nations is interested in space Dr Isaac azimoff microbiologist author and lecturer Dr azof this is the information you wanted on the space shuttle oh thank you thank you we are entering a new New Era of construction engineering and architecture now for the first time in space we are going to be able to ignore gravity and build structures that will be strong for other reasons than simply passive resistance to gravitational pole it's going to be a new kind of architecture we're going to have pre-fabricated structures which we can just move into position and watch these structures grow before our eyes in into new forms and new [Applause] shapes the space shuttle will serve the needs of the International Community and will be one more strong binding Force leading to World cooperation of Nations presenting a global front to the space Frontier one that will help everybody All Nations give the earth a way of forming a common consciousness of the [Music] planet the maiden voyage of the spaceship Columbia signals a new epic the ships of the fleet of the National Space transportation system Challenger the Discovery Atlantis and Colombia will be launched and returned from space on a regular [Music] [Applause] schedule [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I for