"The Spies Who Saved the Space Shuttle" Topic

"The rush to the Moon wasn't the only space race during the Cold War. While the United States and the Soviet Union sprinted to get into orbit—and beyond—another contest was proceeding inside the U.S. government, cloaked in secrecy. At the same time that the USA was competing with the USSR to get into the solar system, NASA and the U.S. military were battling each other for dominance of America's efforts in space.

The rivalry came to a head in April 1981, during the first orbital test flight of the very first operational space shuttle, Columbia. The shuttle, NASA's flagship and a symbol for American military and scientific prowess, was in trouble. Her heat shield had partially failed. No one knew if the damage would prevent Columbia from safely returning to Earth.

And for a moment, it seemed only the military—more specifically, the then-secret National Reconnaissance Office, which controls most of the government's spy satellites and whose staff overlaps with those of the Air Force, Navy, and CIA—could save the shuttle and her crew. In effect, rescuing its own bureaucratic enemy…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Nice find.

Thanks Tango

John T

I had heard bits of this.

Another interesting fact about STS-1: Robert Crippen wrote many years later that per mission rules they should have abandoned Columbia for other reasons.

There was a large 'Beaver Tail' flap at the aft end of the fuselage below the main engines. It was used to help control lift on reentry and landing.

At launch, when the SRBs lit off, the pressure wave jammed the flap, immobilizing it. At this point the shuttle was considered unsafe for landing. Young and Crippen were expected to attempt reentry, then eject off the California coast and let Columbia crash.

Knowing this would have set back, or even ended the shuttle program, Young and Crippen requested to make the landing attempt.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Fascinating article.
I have a love/hate relationship with the Shuttle. It is a beautiful ship. the sort of spacecraft imagined by an artist, and a shuttle launch was a moment of spectacle and awe as one roared its way to orbit.
Yet the machine itself was from its start an expensive boondoggle mired into mediocrity and inefficiency by politics and bureaucratic gamesmanship that should never have been allowed to dictate the creation of what was, essentially, a giant flying "spacetruck." It is the purpose of a "spacetruck" to take things to orbit and bring them back. (And, yes, people too, but the term "spacebus" doesn't fit the cargo side of things.) You fly up, you orbit, you drop things (and people) off to do their work, you fly back down. But, no, everybody and his mother-in-law's uncle's second best friend's cousin had to have a say in it and a slice of the procurement pie. So what we got was overpriced, overdesigned, and, in the end, overly dangerous.
I, too, am full-throatedly in favor of manned space operations that further the exploration and exploitation of the universe. And I also believe that a dollar spent on space exploration does a hell of a lot more good than a dollar spent on pretty much anything else, excepting defense, law enforcement, and medicine, to which it is equal in lifting the human condition. Space spending encourages education, the increase of technology, greater understanding of nature and physical laws, and the sheer awe of seeing the majesty of the Universe, which, frankly, our self-centered, celebrity-obsessed culture could stand to consider for a little while. But such spending demands responsiblity to ensure that it is efficient and effective. Hopefully NASA has learned that lesson.
"Sic itur ad astra."- Virgil