Space Shuttle Columbia - First Landing 1981

STS-1
COLUMBIA
Pad 39-A
1st Shuttle mission
1st Flight OV-102
Crew:
John W. Young, Commander
Robert L. Crippen, Pilot

April 14, 1981, 10:20:57 a.m. PST, Runway 23, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Rollout distance: 8,993 feet. Rollout time: 60 seconds.

Landing Weight: 194,184 lbs.

Sixteen tiles lost and 148 damaged.

Large crowds gathered around the Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB to see the first landing of the Space Shuttle Columbia on April 14, 1981.
I had just purchased a Sony HVC-2010 and SL-3000 and knew that if I shot from where the viewing area was the shuttle would be a speck, so, I decided to chance it and drove up to the first check point which was the air force -- the gate keeper was cool and told me I could park a few hundred feet in, which was closer than the viewing area, but I had to stay put so he could watch me. Wow, I was now on the base. I sat there with the engine still running and then, I just sped off heading north! I saw a sign that said "Rocket Road." That sounded good to me so I kept on going. Suddenly I came across large chrome "Ball" maybe it was a tracking station, and men in white uniforms came out and asked me what I was doing back there?
I told them I was a newsman and was lost. One of them said "Well you're on the right road just keep going and you'll reach the gate onto the lake bed." The other guy said, "But you had better hurry up- they're closing up the road any minute." I drove slowly around the northeast side of the lake bed and to my surprise when I got to the lake bed gate no one was there and the gate was wide open! I sped onto the lake bed, it was just one hour before the shuttle was to land. I parked just south of the Italian news crew! A very cool shoot indeed!

Here is a Columbia Time article circa 4/27/81:
http://tinyurl.com/2poa8v

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• STS-1
• first
• landing
• columbia
• edwards
• air
• force
• base
• 1st
• shuttle
• mission
• april
• 14
• 1981
• steven
• whetstone
• snaptours

[ThisIsNotLA]

RIP Columbia

[trashmail8]

What a brilliant video! Thank you so much for sharing!

Btw. any idea about the name of the background song? It's soo fitting :D

[ThisIsNotLA]

Thanks for the commit- sorry, I have no idea on the music.

[RiSiaas]

Nice video... the space shuttle is the greatest engineering marvel in the modern day world!

[nakazatoGTR]

T-38's or F-5's

[vicorly]

How did you get so close to the runway?

[zghvbn1]

nice work thanks

[rcarmickle1]

Great video thanks for sharing..

[MrHotpantsImComin]

Sends chills with every viewing. Thank you so much for posting.

[KarolynK1]

This video was taken by my brother Steven, I remember how excited and proud he was when he filmed this. I 'm upset by the negative comments that have been made about this being a fake, I'm glad he passed away before he could read all this negativity I don't understand why people have to try and make others upset.

Rest in peace my Brother you will always live on in your amazing vidoes!

[jamctelex]

what is the music on the beginning of this? it's amazing!

[MandalorianKnight]

One Long Runway

[jamctelex]

i think ive watched this every day for the last 5 days.

[PeoplesWar]

This is some of the best-quality home video footage I've ever seen.

[shameaz]

I was there also. I was 13 years old at the time, and my Dad had friends on the base that invited us to come watch it land. It was during our spring break from school, and I was the coolest kid in junior high when I got back and told everyone! And CaptainNomura is right...the sonic boom was insane!