A Final Farewell.

On February 18^th 1977 OV-101 Enterprise makes her first flight attached to the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.  Enterprise is carried aloft for two additional flights.  After being carried aloft by the carrier aircraft she was jettisoned and returned to earth, gliding un-powered to touchdown.

In addition to Enterprise, five other vehicles have been built; OV-102 Columbia, OV-099 Challenger, OV-103 Discovery, OV-104 Atlantis, and OV-105 Endeavour.  Columbia flies the first orbital test flight; STS-1 on April 12^th 1981, and the first operational mission STS-5 in November of 1982.  In the following 34 years the Orbital Vehicles have carried 306 men and 49 women, representing 16 countries into space.  To date, the Orbiters have traveled some 500 million miles, 500,000,000, or 800 million kms.  Think about that number a little.  That represents a distance equivalent to the distance between our Sun and the planet Jupiter.  It takes the light from our Sun nearly 45 minutes to make the trip.

None of this is without cost.  Fourteen astronauts have paid with their lives.

In Memory

OV-099 Challenger January 28, 1986

OV-102 Columbia February 1, 2003

The total cost of the program is estimated to be $210 billion in today’s market.  That may sound phenomenal, however, if you think about it a little, you’ll discover that works out to about $420 per mile.  Aside from the human cost, I personally believe that the knowledge and the experience that we have gained far outweigh the cost.  Cheap at twice the price, and economical too.   

We stand at the end of an era.  OV-104 Atlantis is scheduled to launch the STS-135 mission on the morning of July 8th 2011.  However, at the time of this writing weather delays are expected.  There are additional launch opportunities available on both Saturday and Sunday.

Unfortunately I have never witnessed a launch in person, but I will be watching, and I will be as amazed, awed and as astonished with this launch as I was with the very first one I saw. Being the space cadet child of the space age that I am I’m sure it would have been an Apollo mission and may very well have been a Gemini flight.  I was almost a year old when Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin first orbited our little rock.  Nine years old when Buzz and Neil walked on the moon while the unsung hero Michael Collins waited on orbit in another Columbia.

Fly high folks, safe voyage, and safe return.

Thanks NASA, ya’ll done good!