NASA Marks Shuttle's 25th Anniversary
The flight director who oversaw the first space shuttle launch 25 years ago told NASA workers on Wednesday that they are in an enviable position.
Referring to the development of a new spacecraft to replace the shuttle, retired flight director Neil Hutchinson said "You should take advantage of what you have got here. You have a new toy coming."
NASA employees gathered to mark the 25th anniversary of the
It's a half celebration, half pre-retirement party as NASA enters an age of uncertainty, much like when it launched the first space shuttle in 1981, CBS News affiliate KHOU reports.
With Challenger and Columbia gone and design problems continuing to plague the remaining shuttles, NASA is preparing for their obsolescence. The agency will replace the shuttle with a new vehicle after 2010, but it will require billions of dollars in commitment from the government, KHOU reports.
In April 1981, when space shuttle Columbia was the new toy, NASA's astronauts knew it was risky and groundbreaking.
Mike Mullane was part of NASA's very first class of shuttle astronauts. "As the rocket flew higher and higher the smiles grew wider and wider on our faces. We jumped up cheering, shaking hands. We knew then we all had jobs. That we had a shot at making the same ride," he told CBS News correspondent Mark Strassmann.
And he got his shot, flying on three shuttle missions, Strassmann reports. "I was boundlessly joyful," Mullane told Srassmann. "And I was suffering gut fear. It's scary riding these things. … It is a life-altering experience. You're completely overwhelmed with a sense of 'Yes, I did it I did it!' "
Shuttle program director Wayne Hale says that since its first voyage, the shuttle program has taken twice as many humans to space as all other countries, lifted the most mass to orbit, advanced science at every turn and remained the first and only completely reusable space vehicle in the world.
There was little mention of the two shuttle tragedies that killed 14 people.
There are three remaining shuttles; all are set to be retired in 2010.
NASA's administrator suggested the United States was entering a new "space race."
"Future generations of Americans will be dealing with the fact other nations, other cultures, other societies will be out there with us, and that's a good thing," Michael Griffin said, according to KUOU.
Also, Wednesday marks the 45th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's space flight that made the Soviet cosmonaut the first human to travel into space. He was also the first to orbit the Earth.
To celebrate, Russian President Vladimir Putin chatted with the U.S.-Russian crew on the international space station via a televised hookup, wishing them a successful mission and hailing international cooperation.
"In the past we had lots of arguments about whether it was worth of doing this program, how to do it, how our joint work could proceed. It is clear today that the work is a success," Putin told an astronaut.