America's First Shuttle Launch Columbia Space Shuttle, STS-1

[devinrandall9]

I think it's soo dumb that the last shuttle launch is in TWO hours and TEN minutes.. :( What has the the USA come to these days? :/

[48Dessie]

I watched this when i came home for dinner at lunch time....brilliant

[kistar1]

Класс и Супер!Спасибо за то что это было!

[paulb1988]

If you want a very cool experience, sync this video to 'Countdown' by Rush off of their Signals album. They were at this launch, and thus the song.

[wiiplayer09]

nasa is going to fall because of the new space shup eve virgin galactic...they will no longer be using this shuttle anymore and it is on its last voyage

[fenderstryker1]

I think a moon colony is ambitous enough for now...

[Dremple]

Something tells me we wont be throwing them away

[sterlingrose33]

I live in central Florida, and I got some beautiful photos of the trails in the dark blue early morning sky over the east side of town. Today was the last launch in darkness.

I have no idea what the ending of the shuttle program will do to our economy here in central Florida...it doesn't look good, though...

[asther113]

Why not build a shuttle that is double the size and with the help of the chinese and russian tech experts build a foundation for the kids around the world to marvel at humanities greatest skills,triumph,and victory an not defeat and despair.

[robotkillbot]

so sad its coming to an end

[MurphyMonster]

You know, if had lived to see apollo, and then watched a shuttle for the first time, i would have though " how the hell is this thing gonna fly

[JONNOG88]

Was John Young the only Apollo astrnought who stayed on into the Space Shuttle era.

He was great in In the Shadow of the Moon.

Would have been great had Armstrong, Alderin,Glenn or Shepard been given the chance to pilot the shuttle.

[EndeavourLaunch]

@JONNOG88 two of the Apollo 13 crew members: Fred Haise (Approach and landing tests on Enterprise) and (originally member of Apollo 13, flew to the moon on Apollo 16) Ken Mattingly both stayed around for the shuttle era. Joe Engle, Jack Lousma (CapCOM for Apollo 13, was suppose to be on 19), Vance Brand (Apollo-Soyuz) Paul Wietz (Skylab) Owen Garriott (Skylab) Bruce McCandless all sticked around for Shuttle.

[EndeavourLaunch]

@JONNOG88 Alan Bean (Apollo 12 and Skylab) was also going to get a Shuttle Command, but that never came true. John Young was going to get his 7th space flight on STS-31 to deploy Hubble, but challenger exploded and that got pushed to 1990 and John never flew in space after STS-9 and STS-1.

[wanchope6700]

What would happen if one of the cosmonauts needed to go to the toilet with 15 seconds to lift off?

[leadimprov]

NASA's next big accomplished will be building a space vehicle that can travel EXTREMELY fast, so that we may explore beyond our solar system. Otherwise, the public, in general, won't like spending millions to circle the earth, mostly because they are unaware of the good work these astronauts do.

[sja11]

the closest place of interest is a 4 year trip away and that is if we could solve the problem of accelerating to the speed of light.

and then you have to consider the hazards of navigating at those speeds.

Its hard to fathom being able to communicate with earth if you were accelerating away from it at such a speed.

[RebelYank]

As great as the Shuttle program was, I think it set us back as far as manned exploration is concerned. Instead of working on trying to find a way to send men to Mars we decided to chill out in Earth orbit for 30 years.

[emj0001]

To send men to Mars, we had to know about how humans could withstand long-term space flight, along with all the sciences that go along with it. As such, it was COMPLETELY necessary to spend the time gaining that knowledge in low earth orbit. Not a good idea sending people into deep space without knowing how their bodies and life-support systems could handle it.

[MrVoxi25]

@RebelYank that is cause we still at 2010 we cant send a man even to the moon.. the moon landing was all bs... but I hope we get a president like JFK to get it up going again like it was meant to be

[ResidenceOfEvil]

@RebelYank Yeah, taking a 2 year+ long trip to Mars to gather information that we can just as easily get with robotic equipment is perfectly feasible.

[itdavi]

esses dois caras tem coragem para mamar em onca, eh o novo!

[darrennz2008]

man , what a rush , I remember watching that on TV , and being in awe ..

[akaalan225]

I was there that day, too. Had a friend whose dad worked at Patrick, had high security clearance so we got as close as anyone could. Waited through all the delays, and it was easily the most spectacular human-made event I've ever witnessed. So loud I thought it might do me damage. Hope they still have something similar people can see in the future.

[jpbb96]

at 3:41 it looked like a scene from iron giant

[akifkaya1]

lieee we dont believe u man

[tyrantfromhades]

awesome.

[CarlaLR74]

Sort of sad that NASA is retiring the shuttle fleet.

[killswitch445]

they are ? what will they use if they do ?

[PrecisionEngineered]

That "Big Boy" statue :)

[20CHANCE07]

yea lol

Awsome. =]

[CarlaLR74]

I believe they are going back to good old fashioned rockets.

[johnayerger13]

yup search constellation. back to the moon!

[pintend]

it will be quite sad though to see the space shuttle leaving from active duty. It carried Hubble,Parts of the ISS and carried astronauts to those space stations.

[20CHANCE07]

yes but there is going to be a new craft, after all nasa plans to go to the moon on the year, 2020

[KKD1247]

I was there that day and it was SO exciting!

[JohnJosephPiper]

I'm jealous... but it was still exciting to see it on TV, even with all the delays.

[LaBrea2]

Let's hear the "Moon Hoaxers" and "Flat Eathers" weigh in on all we have really accomplished.

We have been to the Moon, and may return someday. The many shuttle missions are proof enough that we possess this technology, and have for some time.

[BricktownBubba]

Whenever they interview "Moon Hoaxers" and "Flat Eathers" , its always some hick in a trailer park.

[pintend]

Proof that some hicks need proper education. Not from ''GOD''.

[ghostgetter88]

this Columbia was retired. The one that exploded was a different one.

[ianborn]

You're thinking of Enterprise. There was only one Columbia

[RJY4356]

NO, this is the same ship that broke apart  on re-entry in 2003.

[El135o]

Oh, and Commander Young's heart rate was a cool 80 BPM at launch. Co-pilot Crippen, a rookie, was something like 150! But then Young had flown twice to the Moon and twice more before that!

STS-1 was Young's fifth flight.

[El135o]

Commander John Young is truely the best ever among all the astronauts.

[POON3345]

Nice video. Sadly this Shuttle exploded 22 years later while descending back to Kennedy Space center. 5 years after this shot Challenger explodes just over a minute after lift off from the Kennedy Space center all 7 astronauts are killed one of them the famouse school teacher.

[Markyboy28]

Great vid. Thnx for posting!

[bergo2TV]

they can make a space shuttle but they cant make a good cam

[Zoomer30]

One thing you will notice is the benie cap is retracted WAY before they do it now. They did it at T-9min then, that was before they discovered they needed it on there till right before liftoff to keep the ice from forming.

[ent235man]

God Bless The USA !!!!

[ent235man]

Yes indeed I seriously love this Country.  Any Mother Fucker dares to contradict me they can be lucky it ain't face to face. I'd KILL them for going against THE BEST Nation on Earth. Yeeeeeeaaaah!!!!!!

[ent235man]

I remember this day Soooo Well. I was once again proud of my country. And to all you AMERICA haters you can kiss my ass.  I Love this country. It's the BEST!!!

[Zachmister]

i always feel happy when i watch a launch!

[Yutzwagon404]

look at the crowd!!!

[revolt63]

I was 17 standing by the Indian River watching this with my family. The delays in launch time happen to coincide with our trip from Ohio to see my Grandparents.I remember the sound taking like 20-30 sec's to reach us ...Dang I'm getting old.

Thanx 4 the post : )

[bigdaddydiesel007]

Hard to believe this was almost 27 years ago! Seems just like yesterday. Thanks for posting!

[Franciszek64]

IMPRESSIVE!!