An idea born in unsettled times becomes a feat of engineering excellence. The most complex machine ever built to bring humans to and from space and eventually construct the next stop on the road to space exploration.
I'm 30 years old and if someone were to ask me which has been, symbolically, the icon of innovation and technology from my childhood to nowdays, for sure, my answer would be: The Space Shuttle program. No computer or internet stuff, could even barely get close to what extraordinary and unthinkable was achieved by the men and women who took part to this unique project. A milestone in the mankind history, which will hardly be equaled in the future by the generations to come. Proud to have lived it
Remember staying up late into the morning to watch this live. It was totally worth every minute of it. Thanks so much for producing it NASA and allowing it to be freely watchable over here. Wish Atlantis a safe trip and thanks for such an exhilarating and exciting program. Please get back to manned exploration as soon as possible. In the meantime we still have the probes and those cute little rovers :-D
As a sci-fi movie buff I found the music soundtrack distracting at times since it uses most of the music from movie I love! :) Great documentary, thx you!
I was born in the middle of it. And I graduated High School one year before it's retirement. So far, the Space Shuttle program is the only one I've ever experienced. It's going to be fun to see what's next.
***** Gees.. Hey listen, I know what comes next. The wording "It's going to be fun to see whats next" doesn't mean that I don't have a clue what is happening. It means that I'm exited for what's coming. Now calm down people.
I have watched this so plenty of times and I think this is by far one of the best documentaries that shows what the shuttle is thanks for the upload 10/10
glad to find someone else who feels like I do, that the shuttle shouldn't have been retired. We should have upgraded it and worked on a 2nd generation shuttle for multipose missions.
I always find it amazing that people hate the Shuttle instead of hating the politicians that forced it on NASA. Few seem to understand that the choice was Shuttle or Nothing, not Shuttle or Something Else.
An impressive documentary full of great moments of the Shuttle program over the past three decades. I remember very well April,12 1981, when I was a 13-year-old boy and saw the maiden flight of Columbia on TV, but also I remember the moments in 1986 and 2003, when I heard about the loss of Challenger and Columbia and their crews. As a great fan of the program from the beginning, which has watched every flight, today I say THANK YOU NASA for this great program! Ronald from former East Germany
What a great documentary. I grew up watching the shuttle launches and was even able to see a launch in person. I cant wait until we go back into space with a new program.
I remember this documentary came out around the time of STS-135. Watching the launch and landing of the final Space Shuttle changed me inside. I found myself inspired by the legacy of NASA more than I've ever been inspired by anything else in all my 27 years at that time. Over the last 2+ years I have pursued various engineering projects of my own which led me into a better career path. I moved away from the town I lived in since I was born, and I have found a career opportunity as a production engineer/ DOT compliance specialist. I still dream of working with a team of skilled individuals to accomplish goals in space flight. Each day I spend time actively seeking to improve upon my skills so as to effectively contribute to a team at that ideal career (whatever that career may be). If I have been inspired so greatly by the legacy of NASA, how much more can humanity benefit from inspiring our children in the same way? I want to thank every single team member who made possible the flights of NASA; your program has changed my life and maybe soon I can help change your's!
0:17:53 the builders of the shuttle all United Space Alliance workers: Boeing International (Orbiter),Lockheed Martin Aerospace (Tank),ATK Thiokol (Boosters),and Pratt&Whitney Rocketdyne (Engines).
"Shuttle managers reluctantly decided to proceed with a late morning liftoff"??? Nice spin... amazing what happens when NASA is in charge of the narration copy. Thiokol was begging not to launch but was pressured into doing so by NASA's management. You can't rewrite history, guys.
This is a truly awesome tribute to all 6 Space Shuttles (Enterprise, Columbia, Challenger, Endeavor, Discovery and Atlantis) and their combined legacy SO FAR. I also think that they will do an excellent job with their next missions, Long Duration Education Missions (or Flights, if you prefer), and are powerful research tools for generations to view, to study, be inspired by, and build on the foundation they have laid.
score card for the shuttle 400 satellites launched, 15 classified missions,Hubble launch to the stars,Shuttle MIR,John Glenn returns to space and the most important of all Space Station ISS gets built the shuttle has done a lot in 30 years. Long Live The Shuttle.
Space. The final frontier. These are voyages of the Space Shuttles. It's program: to build space stations, to rescue satellites, to boldly return from where no launch vehicle has returned before.
Thank you for sharing this! It is sad to see the Shuttle program cancelled and the fleet retired, but bigger and better things await us in space and I'm excited to see what NASA can do to bring those discoveries to us here on Earth.
The Space Shuttle program was the Space Shuttle Program in name only after Challenger. Regular shuttling into space was pretty much shelved after that. This program did not come close to its full potential, and it is a shame.
Awesome video, probably one of the best documentaries I have watched on here. Always been a huge fan of the space shuttle and anything to do with space exploration. Being from the UK, I was hugely lucky to have witnessed one of these launches whilst on holiday in Florida with my parents back in 1992. Absolutely awesome experience it will stick in my mind until the day I die.
the shuttle is connected to my life my uncles and my grandpa helped build it they worked for ATK Thiokol the company who made the boosters. I have always watched every test and every launch until the shuttle was back in Bay 3 for maintenance because I know that my uncles and my grandpa helped put that shuttle into space in the 30 years that it was in orbit.
One of the best videos I've ever watched on RU-vid. In my opinion, I think the Shuttle program should of been saved. We should of built a new fleet of modernized Shuttles. I know we can do it. But the economics of our time changed, throwing billions to banks that should of been allowed to fail. NASA deserves better than the support they get now. These people are the best of the best.
44:00 = Porcelain - Moby 1:01:44 - Unknown * 1:09:56 = Sons of Odin - The London Symphony Orchestra 1:18:10 = Like A Dog Chasing Cars - Hans Zimmer 1:19:30 ( Credits ) = Love Theme Basil Poleouris * = I couldnt tag it with Shazam nor SoundHound.
Andy Summers The shuttle airframes were reaching the end of their lifespans. I would argue that instead of retiring them too early, they didn't get a replacement sorted soon enough... just a shame about commercial crew being a political football!
+Chad Delk The Buran was very close, until the program was canceled due to lack of Soviet funds... At least they got the Energia lifter out of it, that was subsequently canceled due to a lack of funds... At least they got some decent engines out of it, which they temporarily mothballed due a to lack of funds...
The best video on youtube. When you consider the technology limitations we had when the shuttle was designed. There is no way you would have thought it would even fly. You surely could never imagine it would accomplish what it did.
Elan, we're talking about technology and we're talking about actual achievements, not dreams or wishing. And I'm talking personally, about my life since I was a child to nowdays. The Space Shuttle has been, unquestionably, the best one (as the sum of many decades of developments in the astronautical industry). Maybe a day someone will find a cure for cancer, AIDS, genetic diseases... for a better World. We would all standing together clapping our hands to them.
i wonder who the one dislike is? With the end of the shuttles there is the posiblity for new beginings at NASA. Hope to see what the future has in store for us, and may they be as awe inspireing as the shuttles.
@silvereagle2061 In all fairness, the ISS (Or any space habitat) was never meant to be permanent. Nothing we can build will survive that environment for that long. I think what we are supposed to be doing is replacing individual ISS modules as they become old. In effect, regenerating the ISS as it ages.
I grew up with the Space Shuttle and I will miss it dearly, but I have come to realize that it is only an orbiter and we must move on to the next technology that will take us beyond low Earth orbit. NASA can now focus 100% of its resouces on new projects that will take us to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. I, for one, cannot wait to see HD video from the surface of the Moon.
what a fine piece of engineering and human effort, im really sad that this program has come to an end, I grew up watching and admiring how enourmous this things were yet they flew into space and complete their missions almost flawlessly. I hope that the next spacecraft nasa builds is as spectacular and marvelous as the space shuttle and I cant wait to see the lunch next friday it will be very emotional to watch that pure power display for one last time...
If NASA really wanted to claim the coup of the century.. they would send up into space William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy.. can u imagine the captivation this would have upon the World? not to mention the kudos & funding for the ongoing exploration of space... thumbs up if want Shatner & Nimoy aboard the ISS.
Imagine that same symbolism forever imprinted into you x1000. This is a reality of expanding a space frontier. The space shuttle, as much of a complex and engineering marvel as it was, was designed to provide a cargo and personnel transport to low earth orbit. What happens when we have suits of launch vehicles and thousands of missions, I guarantee you human culture changes.
You call me the idiot???? hahahahahahhahaha Dude I love EVERYTHING about space, astronomy, engineering, astrohpysics... ect. Just because I didn't mention anything about space or other worlds in my comment above you can't just assume that the only thing that I wanted to do was fly the space shuttle (which by the way was an AMAZING piece of designing and engineering). And the space shuttle was the best thing in the space program because it was reusable and we saved billions and billions flying that.
On launch it swivels its engines. On landing before entering the atmosphere it uses rocket thrusters. (Its has 44 of them). On landing in the atmosphere it uses its elevons and rudder.
Great documentary ! Does anybody know what music is playing from 15:32 to 20:40 ? It looks like Philip Glass and I am pretty sure I already heard this one before, but I cannot identify it...
The shuttles would have been retired no matter who was president, since they were already used past their life expectancy. It was decided by NASA that they would continue only until the ISS was complete.
Nice documentary! America can be proud of what it has archeived so far and what it will archieve in the future! It's sad that the shuttle Atlantis will be the last to come home to earth in a few weeks..Watching the nightsky and seeing the space station and the shuttle as little white dots has always excited me. Greetings from Germany!
After the last shuttle mission we can't send people to maintenance the Hubble. Capsules can't go that height and return back, and those tincans doesn't have airlocks.
If anyone can name the song playing at 45:58 I would be incredibly grateful. I've been searching for that song for years since there are no lyrics to look up!
It surprises me that no one seems to ask weather if The Space Shuttle program was worth it. After all, the price for transporting a kg out in LEO turned out to be 40!! times more than anticipated. Where would the space program be if NASA continued with the type of rockets @ 1:19:00 which will be “the beginning of the Space Shuttle successor”?
Sorry, I don't know. I even checked the credits to see if there were music credits. It could just as easily be some stock music. BTW, how did you know that the AA post-9/11 commercial contained music by Steve Ford Music out of Chicago? (Do you work for United?)
Thanks to all the people at NASA, and others all across the globe, we are able to achieve incredible feats that were not imaginable many years ago, they are the ones responsible for building the backbone of modern civilization... and for such devotion, sacrafice, blood, sweat, and tears, I want to say thankyou for your hard work, even if thanks still isnt enough to repay for all you've done for us.
What tears me up is that NASA can only have one type of manned spacecraft at a time. They say, "We should've gone THIS way, instead of THAT way." Why couldn't we have done BOTH?! One for working in Low Earth Orbit, and one for going BEYOND it! Imagine if the Navy had to decide whether to fight WWII with battleships OR aircraft carriers, but not both. They say the Shuttles were getting too old to fly safely... so build NEW ONES! And who throws away all their construction tools after a project?
the only problem from a physics point of view is that due to the profile of the shuttle its only operational area, is low earth orbit. now the orion capsule seems to be well thought out, and has also used the info they have gathered from the shuttle and the iss. bring on 2030
Does anybody know the name of the song at 1:00:40-1:02:25 I find the Shuttle an amazing machine. So complex and that makes it so marvellous. Without all the technics of the Shuttle, the SLS couln't be possible. But why has the SLS rockets no name?
Do we as humans want really big armies or really big space agencies? For the cost of the wars in Vietnam or Iraq, how many ordinary civilians could we have put in space? How many greenhouse colonies could we have built? At what point do we accept that we are never going to quell strife between peoples on the other side of the world? And when do we accept that we, our nation, must pursue peace in space without putting out all the brush fires in the world?
