It was 25 years ago today that the first Space Shuttle launched for real (not a drop test, like Enterprise) - it was known as STS-1 and it was Columbia, now gone. (Know what STS stands for? Space Transportation System.) The brown external tank used to be painted white in those days, but NASA soon realized that all that white paint actually weighed a bit, so they stopped painting the tanks. It was also the only flight to have ejection seats (actually, the next flight may have as well - I don't remember). It was manned by a two-man crew - commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen, both former Navy Test Pilots (there was a time - and I don't know if it's still the case - that if you asked someone a trivia question about NASA's Manned Spaceflight program, the answer almost all the time was "John Young").
Now, if the first shuttle flight was 25 years ago today, today is rich is space history.
It's the 45th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight to space in 1961 - the first manned orbital mission. The first time man was in space.
And today, both a Russian Cosmonaut (Pavel Vinogradov) and an American Astronaut (Jeff Williams) celebrate this moment together in the international Space Station.
This is all so cool.
2005- Quick Return
2004- Sick
2003- Finch Girl
- Michael Palin's Sahara
- Tax Man
2002- White Sox 5 - Orioles 2 - Home Opener
- Friday 5 - Dining Out