STS-2 - Full Count/Launch/Orbit 1 - Full Mission 1 

R.I.P Richard Truly (1937-2024) you will be missed by the whole space community!

I was 11yrs old in 1981. I was space-crazy but wast too young for Apollo. These early Shuttle flights were so exciting at the time. Thank you. foryour hard work bringing all of this back.

At this point in time I lived in California with my new wife and new baby. Great stuff watching this lift off. Now, I'm an old widower enjoying memories of this wonderful time. Marvelous, thank you.😊🙏💥💫💯

I always thought one of the coolest part about being a NASA astronaut is having your own T-38 to commute to the cape from Houston. I guess from Edwards AFB too!

WIKI:- STS-2 was the last shuttle flight to have its external fuel tank (ET) painted white. In an effort to reduce the Shuttle's overall weight, STS-3 and all subsequent missions used an unpainted tank, saving approximately 272 kg (600 lb) of launch weight.[13] This lack of paint gave the ET a distinctive orange-brown color, which eventually became emblematic of the Space Shuttle. Decades later, in 2006, some in the spaceflight community questioned whether the white paint would have prevented the ice-soaked foam shedding issue that led to the loss of Columbia. NASA consensus was that it would not.

I was at the crew walkout from the O&C Building. It begins 44.26 and PAO Hugh Harris says: "We expect to hear a hearty rendition of Happy Birthday." Before the walkout Jean String of KSC Security (the lady in white) came out and asked us to sing as the crew walked to the Astrovan, but we objected. We agreed that one man would play Happy Birthday on his electronic watch (state-of-the-art in 1981). You can see him at 44.56 keeping his watch at the NASA mike on the left and we made our photographs!

Thank you LM5 for providing us with this video.

21:33 STS-51L's commander Dick Scobee on far left (RIP Col Scobee). I think that's Fred Gregory at center, backup capcom during STS-51L's sad demise. John Young at right.

There she is, looking like a beautiful cathedral of the space age. I really liked the white paint... Hail, Columbia! And again thank you very much for the great memories. 🖖

Pure gold ! Thank you soooooo much Simon ! ❤🖖

LM5 merits the Congressional Medal of Freedom for his/their outstanding contribution to man's exploration of space.

Have to admire Joe Engle. Arguably the best stick and rudder pilot pilot astronaut. He flew more X-15 flights than any other astronaut. He had his Apollo 17 LMP position given to Harrison Schmitt. But, he hung around and flew 2 shuttle missions.

The timing! Just when I finished Apollo 13.

This flight was truly an historic moment as it marked the first time a spacecraft had been reused. I wasn’t born at this time but from the moment I could walk and talk space flight has been a huge fascination for me.

This is gonna be amazing!

Among astronauts, always had great respect for Joe Engle in particular…as a shuttle astronaut , he wasn’t one of those Apollo old timers assigned to fly Apollo 28Z that was never gonna be funded in a million years…in 1969 this guy had been named to the right seat on Apollo 17, as in, he not only had a ride to the moon, he would/should have *walked on the moon* on that last mission. Spent 2 years getting ready to be the 14th…er…12th man to put his boots in the dust. But NASA pushed him aside in favor of geologist Jack Schmitt with less than a year to go before Apollo 17…ugh…swallowing that pill…getting that phone call. I can’t imagine. Not only that, but then *staying* with NASA rather than becoming disgruntled and leaving like so many other astronauts did when they felt they weren’t getting assigned fast enough...Then waiting a decade for his ride…what a badass.

I anticipate this!

Love the pre-launch video pictures showing the FSS of Pad 39B in the background. Pads A and B were about 1.5 to 2 miles apart from each other on the Atlantic coast, but Pad B's FSS looked as if it were a mere few feet away from Pad A's FSS in these unique video perspectives. Several flights featured this breathtaking camera angle.

Hi lunar module5 appreciate all you do it cool how you make of these video from the past and I enjoy that because I’m to manned Spaceflight and Astronomy so this is something I enjoy so thank you for providing it👍👍👍👍👍👍

For me STS footage never loses its fascination and the additional scenes like the tiles inspections or close-ups of the assembly are completely new to me! ❤ (the rarely seen setup with the white painted external tank is the icing on this cake, thx a lot, @ LM5!)

Watching the crew van go past the Saturn V outside in the elements before they built the Mission Control simulation and indoor museum. I literally had tears in my eyes when I saw those F1 engines for the first time. We went down to see the STS-129 Atlantis launch for my birthday and took the KSC tour a couple of days before. I'll never forget the tour and the launch as long as I live.

I was in college attempting to navigate life as an adult and this was such an exciting program. Remember it well. Thank you LM5 for all your hard work. You bring so many of us joy and your comprehensive work will be treasured by archivists for generations.

I would be able to see it on the moment :(

Whoa! You really found some great clips I’ve never seen before edited in. Especially like the flightdeck view of the Shuttle Training Aircraft.

Amazing video, as always. Thank you from France !

Thank you so much! Love the text / info on the right end of the screen. Hugh Harris, absolute pro. “At the present time”

I have to say that Hugh Harris (the spokeperson for NASA) had a voice that I became very familiar with and enjoyed hearing. He was very iconic for me when watching the shuttle launches.

Missed the live stream but enjoying now. Thank-you.

Beautiful production, really nice to see how this all came together, thanks for your hard work!

These kinds of videos are just so freaking awesome. All these authentic clips from development and tests and crew training and clips from the launch day with the crew. It just adds to that excitement leading up to the actual launch. All these PAO updates and radio recordings. All at the right time. And those awesome high res photos. Wow! You are doing an amazing work with all this

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!

Great coverage Simon - many thanks. 46:55 - A great shot of Mobile Launch Platform-1 in the distance. I was lucky enough to see it up-close during a visit to KSC the following April (a month after STS-3).

A work of art. ⭐️

Another great job Lemmy!! Thanks for all the hard work.

Awesome, thank you! :D

STS-2 was the only shuttle mission in the whole program that was flown back manually from re-entry to landing.

Space shuttle Columbia decollo primo, il 12 aprile 1981, ho assistito a questo lancio!! Durata missione 3 giorni, purtroppo è andato distrutto nel 2003, per un pannello di protezione durante la partenza e il rientro si è disintegrato per enorme foro causato dal pannello di protezione distaccatosi al lancio

She was a beautiful machine of great capability. Never thought I'd see the USA revert to 1950s-era capsule design.

❤ thank you a true treasure

Richard Truly made 2 flights, this one and STS 8, the first Shuttle launch and landing at night. He was NASA administrator, the first former astronaut to be appointed to the position, for 3 years (I think) but left the job after what I believe was a row with the administration of the first George Bush. We have now reached the point where many pioneering astronauts have died - of the first 43 U.S. astronauts only 12 are still alive and of the 24 astronauts who went to the Moon or orbited or flew around it, only 7 are still alive - James Lovell, (the oldest astronaut ever at 96) William Anders, Buzz Aldrin, the pioneering Apollo 11 astronaut who has now outlived his Commander Neil Armstrong by 12 years, Fred Haise, David Scott, Charles Duke and Harrison Schmidt, one of the last 2 astronauts to walk on the Moon. Former Astronauts who have died in the last few months are Ken Mattingly, Frank Borman, Shuttle astronaut Mary Cleave, Tom Stafford and now Richard Truly. All the shuttle flights before the Challlenger tragedy, except for STS 61 C, the flight that preceded the disaster, now have at least one crew member who has since passed on. Rest in peace to all those astronauts who have left us. M

Gotta say, going into space on your birthday is beyond ridiculous. I wouldn't celebrate another one again, cos this would never be topped!!

I never really noticed until I watched these videos how slow the early Shuttle roll program was! Later on, it turns quite dramatically faster in comparison!

1:29:28 ..for me one of the never fulfilled dreams in The Shuttle Program was that the Enterprise never made it into space...🙄🙄🙄

I like that engineering footage of the launch. Slow motion just as the shuttle is about to launch. I saw a video about the challenger disaster. Now i wonder, on the day of the STS2 launch was it as cold as when the day of the challenger disaster? They were not worried about those Orings in the boosters. After the challenger disaster they redesigned the Orings to withstand more temperature variations.

They don^t build that kind of dangerous steampunk machinery anymore 🤩. It's like RBMK nuclear reactors. (Waves around an original copy of "Communications of the ACM", Sept. 1984 - "Design, development, integration: space shuttle primary flight software system")

What a nice birthday gor Dick

2:33 I wonder who had this idea and who the pilot was. Imagine having a billion dollar cargo.

Good

I love how at the 5:20 mark, the narrator begins to tell that they were at the T-minus 3 hours, 39 minutes 20 second mark, and meanwhile they're showing a guy still glueing tiles on the booster fairings. Better get moving on that, Bob.

The PAO is being unnecessarily savage to Truly on his birthday! 🤣What a jackass! 😂

Anyone know where the first replacement of the MDM was destined for or was it a flight “spare” ? I know the 2nd replacement was destined for Challenger but was wondering about the first replacement (that also failed).

White tank 😍

So are we not going to talk about the fact that they found a GD hat hanging off the tank before lunch.😂 Not sure if that's better or worse than the wrench they found inside the Apollo 1 capsule.

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