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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and University of Nebraska Press Chapters 2014 Bold They Rise David Hitt Heather R. Smith Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples Hitt, David and Smith, Heather R., "Bold They Rise" (2014). University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters. 275. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/unpresssamples/275 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Nebraska Press at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Nebraska Press -- Sample Books and Chapters by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Bold They Rise Buy the Book Outward Odyssey A People’s History of Spacefl ight Series editor Colin Burgess Buy the Book BOLD THEY RISE THE SPACE SHUTTLE EARLY YEARS, 1972– 1986 David Hitt and Heather R. Smith | Foreword by Bob Crippen UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS • LINCOLN AND LONDON Buy the Book © 2014 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Hitt, David. Bold they rise: the space shuttle early years, 1972– 1986 / David Hitt and Heather R. Smith; foreword by Bob Crippen. pages cm. — (Outward odyssey. A people’s history of spacefl ight) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978- 0- 8032- 2648- 7 (hardcover: alk. paper)— isbn 978- 0- 8032- 5548- 7 (pdf (web))— isbn 978- 0- 8032- 5549- 4 (epub)— isbn 978- 0- 8032- 5556- 2 (mobi) 1. Space Shuttle Program (U.S.) 2. Space shuttles— United States— History. 3. Manned space fl ight— History. I. Smith, Heather R. II. Title. III. Title: Space shuttle early years, 1972– 1986. tl795.5.h58 2014 629.44'1097309048— dc23 2013047054 Designed and set in Garamond Pro by L. Auten. Buy the Book To Finn, Caden, Bethany, Nathan, Lillian, Lila Grace, Will, Baxter, Amelia, Andrew, Peyton, Sabrina, Kean, Elliott, Rhys, Daniel, Lainey, and millions of other children who will be the ones to carry on the exploration of tomorrow. Buy the Book Buy the Book Th ey venture forth, into the spangled night Lured inexorably by dreams; With vision And resolve To go beyond the quest of yesterday Bold they rise, these winged emissaries To wonders transcendent; With audacity And faith In the divine promise of tomorrow. Colin Burgess, “Bold Th ey Rise” Buy the Book Buy the Book Contents List of Illustrations . xi Foreword. xv Preface . xvii Acknowledgments . .xxi 1. Th e Feeling of Flying. 1 2. In the Beginning . 20 3. TFNG. 54 4. Getting Ready to Fly . 75 5. First Flight . 94 6. Th e Demonstration Flights . 115 7. Open for Business . 142 8. Th e Next Steps . 169 9. Science on the Shuttle . 196 10. Secret Missions . 222 11. People and Payloads . 230 12. Th e Golden Age . 258 13. To Touch the Face of God . 286 Sources . 317 Index. .321 Buy the Book Buy the Book Illustrations 1. John Young and Bob Crippen inside Space Shuttle Columbia . 5 2. Richard “Dick” Truly and Guion Bluford sleep on Challenger’s mid- deck . .14 3. Space Shuttle design evolution, 1972– 74 . .25 4. Possible confi gurations considered for the Space Shuttle, as of 1970 . 28 5. An early depiction of the Space Shuttle . 30 6. Space Shuttle vehicle testing in the fourteen- foot Transonic Wind Tunnel . 40 7. A worker removes a tile as part of routine maintenance activities . .45 8. Astronauts training to experience weightlessness on board the nasa kc- 135 . .57 9. Th e fi rst female astronaut candidates in the U.S. space program . 68 10. An aerial view of Enterprise hoisted into the Dynamic Test Stand . 82 11. Th e Space Shuttle Enterprise participating in approach and landing tests . .85 12. Space Shuttle Columbia poised for takeoff of sts- 1 . 96 13. sts- 1 crew members John Young and Bob Crippen . 99 Buy the Book 14. Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Launchpad 39a on 29 December 1980 . 101 15. Th e launch of sts- 1 on 12 April 1981 . .104 16. Th e Space Shuttle Columbia glides in for landing . 111 17. Aerial view of the launch of Columbia on sts- 2 . 119 18. President Ronald Reagan talks to Joe Engle and Richard Truly . 123 19. Th e deployment of the fi rst Tracking and Data Relay Satellite . 151 20. Sally Ride on the fl ight deck during sts- 7 . 158 21. Challenger in orbit with the remote manipulator system arm . .162 22. Guion Bluford exercises on the treadmill during sts- 8 . .167 23. Bruce McCandless using the Manned Maneuvering Unit . 171 24. James van Hoften and George Nelson on a spacewalk . .177 25. Dale Gardner after retrieving two malfunctioning satellites . 195 26. Robert Parker, Byron Lichtenberg, Owen Garriott, and Ulf Merbold . .198 27. Th e Spacelab in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle . 209 28. Th e crew of sts- 41d. 235 29. Judy Resnik with several cameras fl oating around her . 244 30. Jerry Ross on a spacewalk . 266 Buy the Book 31. Crew members of mission sts- 51l stand in the White Room at Launchpad 39b . .287 32. On 28 January 1986, icicles draped the launch complex . .291 33. Photograph taken a few seconds after the loss of Challenger . .301 Buy the Book Buy the Book Foreword After John Young and I made the fi rst fl ight of the Space Shuttle aboard Co- lumbia all those years ago, people would sometimes ask me what the best part of the fl ight was. I would always use John’s classic answer: “Th e part between takeoff and landing.” Now that it’s all said and done, I think that describes what the best part of the Space Shuttle program was: the part between our fi rst launch in April 1981 and the last landing in July 2011. Th ere were some low points in between, particularly the loss of both of the orbiters I had the privilege to fl y and their crews, but as a whole I think the shuttle has been one of the most marvelous vehicles that has ever gone into space— a fantastic vehicle unlike anything that’s ever been built. Th e Space Shuttle has carried hundreds of people into space and deliv- ered hundreds of tons of payloads into space. Th e shuttle gave us theGali- leo and Magellan probes, which opened our eyes to new worlds, and it let us not only launch the Hubble Space Telescope but also repair and upgrade it time and time again, and Hubble has revolutionized our understanding of not only our solar system but the entire universe. Th e shuttle carried a lot of classifi ed military payloads early on that probably helped the United States win the Cold War. Th e Space Shuttle let us build the International Space Station. Th e Space Station is an incredible accomplishment, a marvelous complex, but it was the Space Shuttle that taught us that we could build a complicated space vehicle and make it work very well. Th e Space Station would not have been possible without the Space Shuttle. But in those early days, I think the shuttle did something else, a little less concrete but just as important. Th e late ’70s and early ’80s weren’t re- ally a great time for the United States. We’d basically lost the Vietnam War. We’d been through economic hard times, through the hostage crisis in Iran. Buy the Book xvi | foreword President Reagan was shot just before our fl ight on sts- 1. And morale for a lot of people in the country was really low. People were feeling like things just weren’t going right for us. And that fi rst fl ight, it was obvious that it was a big deal. It was a big thing for nasa, but it was a big thing for the country. It wasn’t just our ac- complishment at nasa; it was an American accomplishment. It was a mo- rale booster for the United States. It was a rallying point for the American people. And the awareness may not be as high now as it was then, but I think that’s still true today. I think you saw that when the shuttle made its last fl ight; the pride people had in what it had accomplished and the fact that a million people watched it. When I talk to people, they think space exploration is something we need to be doing, for the future of the United States and humankind. Th e retirement of the shuttle was kind of bittersweet for me. I’m proud of all it’s accomplished, and I’m sorry to see it end. But I believe in moving on. I’d like to see us get out of Earth orbit and go back to the moon, and to other destinations, and eventually to Mars. John and I got to see a lot of the development of the Space Shuttle fi rst- hand. As astronauts, we were involved from an operations standpoint, and as the fi rst crew, John and I visited the sites where they were working on the shuttle, getting it ready to fl y. We had an outstanding, dedicated team, people who really believed they were doing something important for the nation. When we fi nally got into the shuttle for that fi rst fl ight, meeting those thousands of people gave me a lot of confi dence that we had a good vehicle to fl y on.
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