Remembering the STS-1 landing
- From: "Matthew Ota" <otakenji@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 7 Apr 2006 03:52:11 -0700
In April 1981, I had the privelege of witnessing the landing of the
maiden flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia as a guest of a NASA
official at Edwards AFB. We were able to view from the fence at the
east edge of the Dryden Flight Research station. As the loudspeakers
came to life with live comm after radio blackout, I was relieved to
find that the astronauts had survived reentry (with the missing tiles)
and I watched in amazement as all of the radar antennas on the west
side of the base slewed like mad to track the shuttle as it roared into
the area. The double sonic boom heralded a new age of spaceflight, adn
it was awesome to watch as the shuttle came glifing in at a high angle
of descent with T-38 chase planes in fomation. As the shuttle touched
down and rolled out, cheers erupted from the employees and guests.
I used a powerful set of binoculars to watch the crew egress, and
was surprised to see the emotional antics of the usually stoic John
Young as he jumped up and down in joy after exiting and inspecting the
orbiter.
Atferwards I attended the post landing party and got to meet not only
Buzz Aldrin but many of the launch officials and other high-end
officials in the space program. Not to shabby for a lowly 24 year old
test technician from the Allied SIgnal Corporation! All I ever did for
the program was to dielectric test the OMS engine gimbal actuator
motors...
Matthew Ota
ex aeropace electromechanical test technician
.
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