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posted 02-11-2017 03:04 AM               

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Space Shuttle Challenger is photographed by the helmet camera of astronaut Bruce McCandless during the first test of the Manned Maneuvering Unit on February 7, 1984.

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posted 02-11-2017 10:11 AM               

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"Those were the days" were in the 60s? Maybe if you were born when Mercury-Gemini-Apollo were taken place.

In 1984, the shuttle program was to revolutionize access to space. Almost two years later, things would be quite different, unfortunately...

And in 2017, we're back with capsules and big rockets. A giant leap backwards.

Just my opinion.

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From: Killingly, CT
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posted 02-11-2017 11:20 AM               

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Great photo, Ed. Whether it be Mercury, Gemini, Apollo or Shuttle, it's amazing how you find photos that we've never seen before.

Your photo of the week to us is always awesome.

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posted 02-12-2017 12:23 AM               

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I tried to locate Robert Stewart in this great shot, theoretically he was to be somewhere in the payload bay. As my eyes are not what they used to be I did not succeed.

Can somebody help please? Or explain why he is not there (in case my eyes are not that bad yet)?

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posted 02-12-2017 09:32 AM            

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Yes, that looks like him on the forward starboard side of the payload bay. You can see a little of the gold visor facing the same side of the payload bay.

And I perfectly understand the sentiment that those were the days of space travel when it seemed like all was possible. It really just depends on when you grew up. If you grew up in the 80's then Apollo seemed like ancient history and the time of Shuttle, the MMU, and the worm all felt like the future!

Which makes you think that in regards to the next generation. April 9th of this year will mark the same duration of days since STS-135 that occurred between ASTP and STS-1. To many kids Shuttle is now only a vague notion from history.

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From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
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posted 02-12-2017 09:00 PM               

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I'm born in 1965 and at the time of STS-1 I was 16 years old. But despite those wonderful shuttle missions of those years before the Challenger tragedy... well you cannot compare that with the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo epic, culminated with a man walking on the moon.

And cannot compare the NASA budget of the 60s with the 80s budget.

This in my opinion, of course.

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From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 02-12-2017 11:18 PM               

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I think our esteemed host, Robert Pearlman has expressed similar regrets. I lived (when I was half aware of it as a kid) through most of Gemini and all of Apollo, but remember Gagarin's flight well.

Such was the nature of the times.

Groundbreaking periods in history but I am also (as a good friend of mine in Australia says) a custodian of material and have never divorced what space travel is now as it was in any decade. Sure, if you missed Apollo, you missed a bit but none of use can choose the time of our birth.

With an imagination and the assistance of footage from the 60s/70s, it's (for me) not hard to think back to those days at all.

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From: Houston, TX
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posted 02-13-2017 08:10 AM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by Mike Dixon:
I think our esteemed host, Robert Pearlman has expressed similar regrets.

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I used to say that my greatest regret was not living through the Apollo era, but I have had a change of mind, in part because it has provided a separation between nostalgia and history. There's no doubt that the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs were tremendous accomplishments, but they are sometimes celebrated at the cost of later programs' achievements as a result of the fond memories people share of those early spaceflights.

As my particular fondness for space history tends to focus on how our culture has been affected by and extended beyond Earth by our spaceflight efforts, the shuttle program, with its diversity of crew members, and the continuity of the space station program has provided a richer set of examples than the launches that preceded them.

That said, I am also aware that my own nostalgia for the shuttle program plays into my viewpoint, in very much the same way that those who lived through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions experience.

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From: Northampton UK
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posted 02-13-2017 11:27 AM            

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As someone who lived through the excitement of Mercury, Gemini and Apollo I am obviously biased towards those programmes but I still found the Space Shuttle really exciting too with many brilliant missions.

What with the Soviet/Russian accomplishments I have had a brilliant age to live through but I still feel optimistic for todays and tomorrows generations as the future will also bring about many tremendous events. The ISS has been so successful with many countries collaborating and with the private sector coming on board there will be more adventurous missions ahead I'm sure.

I have always hoped to see the first landing on Mars, but having stayed up all night for the first moon landing, perhaps I am being selfish but many of you will see that happening I am sure. Also a fly around Venus would be another wonderful mission which will also most certainly happen so todays youngsters have a lot to look forward to, as well as a return to the moon.

Just hope I will be lucky enough to still be around to witness some of them but you have a lot to look forward to. We all have to make the most of whatever era we are born into.

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