- HISTORY LESSON.
IT'S TIME TO TURN BACK THE CLOCK,
WAY BACK TO THE EARLY 1970s.
THE APOLLO MISSIONS-- YOU KNOW THEM:
"ONE SMALL STEP" ON THE MOON AND ALL THAT--
WERE WINDING DOWN,
AND THE NEXT BIG STEPS FOR THE SPACE PROGRAM
WERE ANYTHING BUT SET IN STONE.
BUT SOME BRILLIANT MINDS AT NASA WERE WORKING ON A NEW DESIGN
UNLIKE ANY SPACECRAFT BEFORE:
THE WORLD'S FIRST REUSABLE SPACECRAFT.
IT LAUNCHES LIKE A ROCKET,
MANEUVERS IN EARTH ORBIT LIKE A SPACECRAFT,
AND LANDS LIKE AN AIRPLANE--
ALL THAT WITH AN ENORMOUS PAYLOAD CAPACITY.
YOU KNOW THAT SPACECRAFT TODAY AS NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE.
WITH AN OPERATING LIFE OF OVER THREE DECADES,
THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM HAS PROVEN TO BE
AN AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT FOR THE ENGINEERING COMMUNITY,
AN ASSET TO THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY,
AND A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND INNOVATION
FOR THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
BUT HOW MANY OF US KNOW EXACTLY
WHAT THE SHUTTLE HAS ACCOMPLISHED
OR HOW IT HAS IMPACTED OUR LIVES?
LET'S TAKE A LOOK BACK NOW AT SOME SPACE SHUTTLE HIGHLIGHTS
THAT OCCURRED JUST BECAUSE IT FLEW.
- T-MINUS 10, 9, 8, 7...
- ON APRIL 12, 1981,
THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE COLUMBIA ORBITER
MARKED THE BEGINNING OF OUR SHUTTLE ERA.
- AND WE HAVE LIFTOFF,
LIFTOFF OF AMERICA'S FIRST SPACE SHUTTLE.
- THE FLIGHT WAS NUMBERED STS-1,
WITH THE STS MEANING SPACE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
AND THE 1 REPRESENTING THE FIRST ASSIGNED SHUTTLE MISSION.
COLUMBIA'S TWO-PERSON CREW CARRIED OUT
ITS 54.5-HOUR MISSION SUCCESSFULLY,
AND FROM THAT POINT ON, THE SPACE SHUTTLE MISSIONS
CONTINUED TO GET MORE AND MORE COMPLEX
AS WE CAME TO UNDERSTAND
JUST WHAT THIS INCREDIBLE MACHINE COULD DO.
A QUICK LOOK AT THIS GRAPH SHOWS US
HOW MISSION COMPLEXITY INCREASED
AS THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM PROGRESSED,
BUT WHAT DOES EACH COLOR MEAN?
LET'S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK.
THE DARK BLUE INDICATES THE LENGTH OF THE FLIGHT
MEASURED IN MISSION DAYS.
EARLIER FLIGHTS LASTED LESS THAN A WEEK,
BUT LATER FLIGHTS WOULD LAST UP TO 15 DAYS.
ADD THE TOTAL NUMBER OF DAYS EACH SHUTTLE FLEW,
AND YOU CAN SEE THAT THE ORBITERS
HAVE SPENT A GREAT DEAL OF TIME IN FLIGHT.
GREEN IS CREW SIZE, WHICH STARTED AT TWO
BUT GREW ROUTINELY TO SIX MEMBERS.
SOME FLIGHTS TO MIR
AND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
INCLUDED A SEVENTH CREW MEMBER
AS THE SHUTTLE TOOK THE CREW TO THE STATION
AND RETURNED THEM HOME.
PURPLE REPRESENTS DEPLOYMENTS.
THE LARGE CARGO BAY IN THE SPACE SHUTTLE
MEANT NASA COULD TAKE DOZENS OF SATELLITES TO SPACE
AND RELEASE THEM INTO ORBIT.
THESE SATELLITES DO EVERYTHING FROM COMMUNICATION
TO HELPING US MONITOR WEATHER AND CLIMATE.
SOME SATELLITES, SUCH AS THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE,
WERE NOT ONLY ORIGINALLY DEPLOYED
BUT RETURN TO THE PAYLOAD BAY FOR REPAIR,
KEEPING THEM IN SPACE AND, IN THE CASE OF HUBBLE,
ABLE TO HELP SCIENTISTS LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE
THAN WE EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE.
- IT'S AN UNBELIEVABLE VIEW.
- BLACK MEANS RENDEZVOUS.
THAT'S EVERY TIME THE SHUTTLE CONNECTED TO AN ORBITING CRAFT,
FROM SATELLITES TO HUBBLE TO MIR
AND, OF COURSE, TO THE ISS.
- NICE TO SEE YOU. - WELCOME.
- YELLOW REPRESENTS EXTRAVEHICULAR ACTIVITIES,
OR E.V.A.s, MEASURED BY E.V.A. CREW DAYS.
MANY FLIGHTS HAD NO SCHEDULED E.V.A.s,
WHILE OTHERS HAD A SPACEWALK EVERY DAY
WHERE ONE OR TWO CREW MEMBERS HAD TO LEAVE
THE SAFETY AND SECURITY OF THE SHUTTLE
TO DO SOME TASK THAT REQUIRED THEM
TO LITERALLY HANG OUT IN SPACE.
THE LIGHT BLUE REPRESENTS SPACELABS.
THESE ARE MISSIONS WITH A SCIENTIFIC LAB
IN THE PAYLOAD BAY.
THESE FLIGHTS INCLUDED DOZENS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDIES
THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE NOT JUST TO THE SPACE PROGRAM
BUT TO OUR LIVES HERE ON EARTH.
EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN DONE
TO MEASURE CHANGES IN THE HUMAN BODY,
THE EFFECT OF MICROGRAVITY AND RADIATION ON SEEDS,
AND EVEN WAYS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS--
JUST TO NAME A FEW.
AND FINALLY, THE RED REPRESENTS
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ISS BY SHUTTLE CREW MEMBERS.
NASA AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
WERE ABLE TO USE THE LARGE CARGO BAY
TO ADD MAJOR ELEMENTS TO THE ISS,
INCLUDING THE NEW SOLAR ARRAYS AND LABORATORIES,
MAKING THE ISS A HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT
AS WELL AS A TECHNOLOGICAL ONE
AND ALLOWING IT TO FUNCTION FOR YEARS TO COME.
- WE'RE READY FOR ANOTHER GREAT DAY IN SPACE.
- WOW, ALL THAT BECAUSE OF THE SHUTTLE.
BUT WE CAN'T STOP THERE.
THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM EVEN CHANGED NASA CAREERS.
PRIOR TO THE SHUTTLE, EVERY ASTRONAUT
WAS CUT FROM THE SAME MOLD: MILITARY PILOTS.
BUT THE SHUTTLE OPENED THE DOOR
FOR PEOPLE WITH DIFFERENT SETS OF SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE,
CREATING THE POSITIONS OF MISSION SPECIALIST
AND PAYLOAD SPECIALIST,
PEOPLE WHO COULD FOCUS THEIR ENERGIES
ON THE ENGINEERING TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED
OR THE SCIENCE TO BE PERFORMED.
TWO OF THESE MISSION SPECIALISTS INCLUDED SALLY RIDE,
THE FIRST AMERICAN FEMALE IN SPACE ABOARD STS-7,
AND GUY S. BLUFORD, JR.,
THE FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN IN SPACE ABOARD STS-8.
BOTH MISSIONS FLEW IN 1983.
WHAT ELSE HAS THE SHUTTLE GIVEN US?
HOW ABOUT SPINOFFS?
THAT'S RIGHT, THE SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM
HAS GENERATED OVER 100 TECHNOLOGY SPINOFFS,
INCLUDING AN ARTIFICIAL HEART,
VIDEO STABILIZATION SOFTWARE,
EVEN INSULATION FOR YOUR CAR.
HOW'S THAT FOR A LASTING LEGACY?
AS FOR WHAT'S NEXT,
NASA ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS ARE HARD AT WORK
ON THE NEXT CHAPTER OF SPACE EXPLORATION:
DESIGNING SPACECRAFT THAT WILL TAKE HUMANS
FAR BEYOND LOW-EARTH ORBIT.
AND THANKS TO THE SHUTTLE,
OUR NEXT GIANT LEAP INTO THE UNIVERSE
WILL BE EVEN BIGGER, JUST BECAUSE IT FLEW.