63 years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space (and orbit the earth). On this same day, 20 years later, the United States first launched the Space Shuttle featuring its unusual white external propellant tank that was only seen on the first two shuttle missions.
@Erdayastronaut I think the main tanks color was later changed to orange to maintain correct temperature of the fuel when in space , as white would reflect most of the light , lower the temp.
According to declassified documents after the fall of the USSR, Vladimir Ilyushin was secretly placed in a capsule named Rossiya and his secret flight took place in the early hours of the morning, on Friday April 7th 1961. After a guidance malfunction, the cosmonaut is reported to have made an unguided crash landing in China, too critically injured to announce the mission a complete success. He died in 2010. The subsequent bad behavior by Gagarin and his extreme alcoholism resulted in countless embarrassments for the government as he toured the world, leading to that fateful day in 1968 when his MiG fighter went into an uncontrollable spin and crashed. Details remain shrouded and have never been fully explained. These are facts, not conspiracies. Put the pieces together in any way that makes sense to you or throw them away because they threaten your longstanding beliefs about how the world should be.
@Erdayastronaut I remember watching the shuttle launch live on 18 inch color tv that didn't have a remote control. Things have changed
@Erdayastronaut I was fortunate to be able to see that first launch of Columbia, STS-1. I was attending a training class in Orlando that week and was able to get away to see it. It was quite the experience with the loud popping of the SRBs. Everyone was happy to see it launch safely.
Happy birthday human space flight. I remember the first launch of the Space Shuttle with that white tank. I was watching it on TV back in Norway. My interest for Scace started with that event. The history of the Russian space program as well as the American one is fascinating, all built on Von Braun research and design developed by the Nazis for the V2 program. Von Braun and his Peenemunde team accelerated rocket design by years perhaps even decades, and it led to both the US and Russian space program. I believe that Von Braun was even involved with the early work of the space shuttle. Now we are seeing a similar acceleration of progress led by Elon and his team on Boca Chica Starbase. Happy birthday space flight – We can celebrate today with the most progress since the Von Braun days !
@Erdayastronaut It is CRAZY to me that there are only twenty years between Gagarin's flight and the Shuttle. Those feel like they are separated by a lifetime in my mind.
@Erdayastronaut The eve of my 10th birthday. I remember hearing the news on the local radio when I lived in the then Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland of which I still have a coat of arms, recently inherited from my parents