 Hey guys, Amy with you again, and today I thought I'd kind of talk about one of the most common questions I get Without fail every week somebody leaves at least one if not like five comments on vintage space asking me or More telling me that I should be talking about the space shuttle now because it's vintage So instead of discussing again what I consider vintage space and the fact that it's really just a name not Like a defining term of my blog. I'm going to talk about why I just don't like the space shuttle All right So maybe that sounds like unnecessarily harsh to say that I don't like the space shuttle But truth be told like I'm not super fascinated by the space shuttle and this comes as a massive surprise to everybody for some reason And I don't totally get it so the space shuttle for those of you who don't know which I can't imagine is anybody out There that would be watching this is this thing right here This is the shuttle orbiter and of course we're most familiar with seeing it in its launch configuration where there's you know The the big external tank and then the two solid rocket boosters the shuttle was conceived in the mid to late 1970s started flying in 1981 and flew its last mission in 2011 it it flew 135 times Orbited about 200 miles above the planet because it helped build the International Space Station. That's where the ISS orbits It launched five interplanetary missions. It was able to take cool stuff like Hubble up in its payload bay, which is massive Here's the cockpit. Here's the payload bay So yeah, that was I mean that's kind of like the shuttle program in a nutshell for me So yeah, why I'm not super into the shuttle people assume that I should be like a massive shuttle fan because it's my vintage as it were I'm a little bit younger than the shuttle program, but I did grow up with it I mean for me I always knew there were astronauts in space because of the space shuttle and when I started reading about space things and every Time there was talk of astronauts anywhere It was always in reference to the shuttle and there were always pictures of this iconic space craft So yeah, I grew up with this as like what space flight was But it was never very interesting to me Because it really like it's not hard to see that the shuttle Didn't do the same kind of discovery and exploration as all of the Apollo era vehicles and programs So that's I mean, that's really what it comes down to For me and any technology and any sort of history that I'm really fascinated by Because I feel like I've said this a million times and I'm gonna keep saying it I am an historian that likes space not a space person that likes history So for me the the histories that I'm always fascinated by be it space or other It usually has to do with a pioneering technology for me It's always that first time you have to figure something out that first time you do something new that The problem-solving and being able to look back and really understand how problems were solved that to me is what makes for Fascinating history, especially when you're dealing with technology, especially when you're talking about large-scale programs and things like going to the moon So for me the Apollo era kind of sums that up every mission Okay, I shouldn't say every mission because like Gus Grissom's Mercury flight did nothing that Al Shepard didn't do with the exception of like nearly killing him with the drowning thing Okay, so let's say let's put it into two broader terms almost every mission in the Apollo era Did something new it added a little bit more to NASA's understanding, right? So we have the Mercury program that was designed to just like teach NASA how to fly in space Okay, this is super simple. Where's my hand? Let me get let me get toys I got my box of space toys right here And I got my Pete back there. Hi Pete say say hi to everybody Pete Okay, so the Mercury spacecraft the Mercury spacecraft This was just the super simple Tiny vehicle that the astronauts a joke you don't really get into it so much as you put it on because it's basically like a second skin This was the program that would teach astronauts how to fly in space and by how to fly in space It was almost entirely automated and the astronauts had basically no control It was more teaching NASA how to fly in space how to deal with things like escape systems communications Could you swallow food in space? Would your eyes get disoriented and would you know without gravity would they lose their shape? And would you not be blind? So this is the program that taught NASA how to fly in space We went from some orbital flights to day-long missions in the course of two years. Okay, that's pretty awesome Also, you know first-time men riding rockets into space like a lot of obviously a lot of firsts with this program Then we have Gemini so you can you can see the heritage between this these are not to scale I should I should emphasize these are not to scale the Gemini spacecraft This is my all-time favorite as some of you guys may know So Gemini is really the program that taught NASA how to fly in space And this is the program that every single mission added Significantly to NASA's understanding of how to do things in space There were two unmanned flights Gemini's one and two Gemini three was a simple sort of what we call a shakedown cruise Gus Grissom and John Young just went up for an orbit and made sure the spacecraft work Gemini four was the first ever EVA Gemini five was the first long duration of eight days in space Gemini six and seven came within feet of each other Gemini eight didn't work out so well because Neil Armstrong and Dave Scott almost died when a thruster was stuck I'll link to a video up in the corner one of these corners here We'll have a link to that video But they didn't die Gemini nine was Less more successful than the first EVA, but still not super successful EVA where Gene Cernan Nearly died. There was a lot of nearly pretty sketchy things on Gemini Gemini 10 started working out a lot of problems Honestly, the details of that mission are escaping me right now Gemini 11 was an altitude record at I think 850 miles away from the planet With pecan rad pecan rad back there and and dick Gordon and then the last mission of the program Jim Lovell and buzz Aldrin on Gemini 12 put all the things together at its successful EVAs station keeping All kinds of maneuverability really really learned how to fly in space And then of course as we know the Apollo program, let me get the little pieces my Apollo model Oh man, this thing has been in my purse for about four years now. No, that's such a lie like eight years now It's the this leg is upside down. It's the one that I that I schlep around the country and actually the world with me So it's in kind of bad shape, but as we know Apollo here we go. Okay Nailed it So as you know the Apollo program, of course Um did did very much the same for lunar space exploration as gemini did for basic space flight I want to say that's the first time I've ever tried to make that analogy. I think it kind of works So every Apollo mission took NASA a step further towards the moon especially like the early Apollo missions I actually think are way more fascinating in a lot of ways After the Apollo 1 fired Apollo 7 was the first to really test the new spacecraft just in earth orbit again the same shakedown cruise It was successful. Apollo 8 went all the way to the moon with you know, no no lunar module Apollo 9 tested all the pieces in earth orbit Apollo 10 went through the entire dress rehearsal so that when Apollo 11 launched it Had a chance to land and did so and did it at a time where if it had failed NASA would still have a chance in december and sorry november with Apollo 12 to make that landing And of course Apollo 12 was a second successful landing Um and then every Apollo mission after that added more there was um, you know increased surface stays You know at neil armstrong and buzz aldrum were there for a day But I think their EVA was only about two and a half hours By the time 17 left. I forget how many hours. I think they had something like 21 hours on the surface And three days on the moon. So significantly more time spent doing science More instruments. They had the lunar rover on the last three missions to really increase the astronauts ability to move around Every mission on apollo was solving some unknown and I would extend that to skylab, which I do not have a model of skylab Um skylab being the the program that took a disused s4b upper stage Turned it into a laboratory on earth and then launched it on the last side and five ever to launch And then had three apollo missions Fly up and and stay on board for as much as 84 days for the third and final skylab mission And then apollo the again the same basic spacecraft was again modified with a special docking adapter Which I of course don't have a model of I should get one To be able to dock with the soyu spacecraft on the apollo soyu's test program So every single time apollo flew it did something New and different and noteworthy and it was all going towards a goal Obviously not to scale The shuttle program Was really nasa's attempt to make spaceflight cheaper and more and routine Okay, apollo was basically a single use vehicle of the entire apollo Saturn stack Only the little gum drop could come back and they were not designed to be reused The idea with a space shuttle is you have a larger vehicle um that can This does not have the heat or the uh the tiles on it for Reentry heating control But um it can come back through the atmosphere and it can be reused the idea with a space shuttle Was that it can be turned around in a matter of weeks And if we have a fleet of four or five shuttles we could have as many as 50 flights a year This would make space flight so routine and so cheap that we could be doing all kinds of science exploration building things in space now The problem with the shuttle program right from the start and I will preface all this by saying I still have a lot of work into this that I want to do myself. Um, but from My interest in the shuttle program, maybe I should say it this way Is in the decisions that led to it Really becoming a thing that was funded So basically it was nixon who chose to actually fund the space shuttle program again because it was going to be cheaper um reliable it was going to be reusable and um it wasn't kennedy's okay remember kennedy kind of set the nation on the path of the moon And kennedy also beat nixon in the 1961 presidential election. So nixon was pretty happy to cancel kennedy's legacy program So he was given the option Nixon was given a few options of like things he could fund in space and he ultimately picked the space shuttle and space station idea However, he did not fund the space station just the shuttle. So the shuttle was kind of built as like The space version of the escalator to nowhere in the simpsons where it was like, I mean the shuttle Its name says it is a shuttle between two things being the earth and the space station Except that there was no space station. So it's a shuttle between the earth and who knows So, yeah, it was kind of it was kind of built Without a really firm purpose. Okay, so that's that's one thing that has always kind of fascinated me about the shuttle The second is the size of the payload bay Okay, it's massive. It's really hard to tell like, okay, this is the cockpit. You can fit seven people up here So it's pretty pretty Rumi up here. This is massive. This is like a school bus And it was this size because the department of defense said that it would help fund the program if nasa would agree to launch dod satellites and The dod stipulated that the payload bay be this size. Okay Hubble is an old or disused dod satellite that nasa took and changed and built into Hubble That's why it fits so perfectly in that payload bay Well, the dod kind of pulled out of the hole like will help you fund space flight if you make it this size thing So nasa was left with a vehicle way bigger than it needed to be there's Almost no need. I mean, yeah, it launched Hubble. That's awesome Okay, yeah, it had the canada arm go team. Um All kinds of like neat things that came from that but ultimately Did we need something this big? Probably not because we could have launched Hubble on a different rocket if we didn't have this massive space shuttle And maybe if the space shuttle hadn't been so massive It would have been actually more user friendly Speculation on my part again guys. I have a lot more research into this that I want to do so Why won't I talk about the space shuttle program? Um Because my interest my personal interest in space is not just does not It included this program that In my opinion honestly just circled the earth for 30 years. It did some cool stuff. It built the iss That's all I got like I just don't love it. Um To me it doesn't have that That pioneering spirit in the same way again I'm fascinated by the technology that went into building the shuttle I'm fascinated by the early missions namely the first the sort of approach and landing tests and also the first flight Because again testing a new technology to me is fascinating, but ultimately I just I'm not that interested in the missions that it did because Uh, it just doesn't it just kind of doesn't do it for me So for all the people who keep saying not asking saying That uh, the shuttle is getting pretty vintage therefore it should be in vintage space Well, it's probably not gonna end up on vintage space because I'm just not that into it. Um And there's like the other half of this little like mini rant Um is that for me vintage space is a fascination not just with the space thing But with the vintage thing and this is something that a lot of you guys have noticed In things like my decor a couple of you have pointed out the legs on my couch back here are very much mid-century modern Um, I also have a fair bit of vintage furniture. My desk for example is a 1950s Rosewood executive desk that I bought In north carolina and I absolutely love love love this piece of furniture so much It is it is very much a beautiful piece from the 50s. My dresser is from the 30s It's amazing. I have a set of matching chairs that are from the 60s. I'm looking into adding more Proper actual vintage decor to my house right now But there's also little things like this mug that I am drinking coffee out of I really bad iced coffee actually is a franciscan oasis pattern This is a pattern of flatware that was only made I think between about 1954 and 1962 Um, I am currently building out a whole collection of these including the little variables and salad plates and dinner plates. Um Because I love the aesthetic of the mid-century modern I also have some of you guys may be familiar with this pattern This is the atomic starburst pattern, which is Admittedly more fitting for what I do, but actually a lot more expensive So I'm kind of giving up on this one, but how cute is this pattern for wait. There it is um Yeah, I have two two cups and saucers in this one So yeah, these are all from the early 60s that I have been hunting down and buying as much as I can I also have this beautiful set of dishes. I have To uh four dinner plates for salad plates Four cup and saucer sets from my grandmother. Um in this adorable hand-painted pattern from medicine hat Alberta of all places Um, so yeah, all of my daily dishes Are from the 50s and 60s, which is a little bit nuts and I'm like paranoid of breaking them also paranoid of breaking my daily drinking water glasses, which are um Apollo this is the Apollo 13 one. I have Apollo 11 12 13 and 14 1970s vintage uh Drinking juice glasses and I also have the carafe which I use for water in my fridge and it's awesome I also even have vintage tupperwares. This is vintage pyrex from the 50s That I absolutely love it's adorable and I have big and small ones of these This is a thing with me all the vintage all the time even just like little things like jewelry I don't wear earrings ever, but I really love 60s costume jewelry like these earrings. Um, my great No, my grand uncle My great uncle once removed. I'm not totally sure my grandmothers. My dad's mother's brother apparently owned a jewelry store In toronto in the 60s My mom's been helping helping that bit of the family kind of clear out some of the old things and found found a bunch of Beautiful earrings like amazing 60s vintage clip-on earrings. I don't have my ears pierced So I have a lot of this Even a lot of my clothes are if they're not vintage because Sometimes it's hard to find good quality vintage clothes and that are, you know, not crazy expensive um Vintage designed clothing a lot of that make that makes up a lot of my wardrobe and I should add too that like There's a lot of buddy holly that I listen to and a lot of 1950s 60s rock and roll um That's that's the music that I was raised on and that I still love and listen to all the time um, so vintage space is vintage because of the era as well as because of the type of discovery that was being done at the time so vintage space for me is as much about pioneering technologies and kind of Figuring out how to go to the moon as it is About the era in which that happened And actually vintage space the name of the blog I came up with the name and I can't remember if I've told this story on the internet yet or not But I came up with the name of the blog in a coffee shop near the house Or near my apartment when I was living in south tempe Was there with my ex and our friend sara and we're trying to come up with a good name And I can't remember who came up with vintage space But the idea was it was vintage space like old things in space, but also a space for vintage things Because I wasn't totally sure what the blog was going to look like I thought it might be like half a vintage like half space stuff and half just like Fun vintage things. I had no idea. I was new to this whole blogging thing And I didn't really know where it was going to go Yeah, so it was really I wanted to leave the blog open to doing Old things in space as well as just discussing cultural things from the mid-century from the 1950s and 60s Because it is an era that's really always fascinated me and even just down to the style like I just love the aesthetic of it I don't love the you know racism and sexism that was You know everywhere in the 50s and 60s, but aesthetically it was very pretty era Um, and I wanted to have a chance to maybe explore all of that on the blog Of course that never happened Within like two months. It was clear that it was just going to be about old things in space Vintage space for me is just a personal fascination in the 50s and 60s and all things that relate to it And I don't I don't really you know, you guys will probably notice that anytime I do talk about anything modern Um, you know right up to the curiosity landing to Juno I will always make the references back to the first wave of exploration to tie it in to vintage space Not because I'm trying to make it like on brand for vintage space But because that's where my interest is you can't do anything in space You can't talk about anything in space without talking about the roots of where that technology came from So for me vintage space doesn't need to necessarily go beyond The Apollo era because we're still seeing those echoes And even in the shuttle program I can talk about the shuttle with respect to vintage space because it obviously has has its influence in dinosaur Which as some of you may know is one of my all-time favorite super weird space programs that never spaced Um, so yeah, will you see the shuttle on vintage space? Maybe because I am fascinated by the transition between Apollo and shuttle Um, that is indicative of a lot of things that I think we're still dealing with and sort of NASA Having maybe a bit of trouble nailing down its direction And you know doesn't help that we're constantly changing leadership and that constantly changes the agency's direction I'm fascinated by that transition But I'm probably never going to live tweet a shuttle mission Nor am I probably going to go into detail about every single flight that ever flew because Some of them have really interesting moments And there's definitely some really amazing stories and amazing personalities But on the whole it just isn't a thing that I personally love the way that some people do So I'm going to let people like Robert Perlman, dear friend of mine who owns and runs collect space I don't know if you guys have or have not heard of it But check it out because he's awesome and he knows more about the shuttle than anybody and he owns more bits of shuttle memorabilia than like most museums Um, I'm going to let people who love the shuttle Do that for the shuttle and I'm going to stick to what I call vintage space because it's a good name for a blog And a good name for a youtube series But ultimately is just all about the things that I am really fascinated in which is mid-century technological Booms and weird americana from the 50s and 60s So, yeah That's the long answer to the constant question that I get as to why I am not doing the space shuttle on vintage space yet Because yeah, it's getting vintage, but it's not my vintage I mean, it's my vintage, but like, you know, you know what I mean. You guys know what I mean by now So I hope that kind of answers the question Um So let me know in the comments. Are you a massive shuttle fan and why? Why are you guys so keen to have shuttle content on vintage space? And of course, leave me any questions or other random things that you would like to hear me sound off on on my new vlog channel I will be putting up new episodes every week. And of course the bi-weekly podcast I'm doing with jason mclellan the punk rocker moon stomper podcast So if you want to get all kinds of weird content into your inbox every week subscribe right here and never miss an episode