When NASA launched its last space shuttle a year ago, McLean Fahnestock paid tribute to the 30-year old shuttle program by putting footage from every launch into one video. 135-in-1. It makes for an arresting sequence. But, unfortunately, the 1986 Challenger explosion ends up overwhelming the story. One Vimeo commenter, Jeremy Ricketts, got it right when he said:
I don’t know about the rest being a decorative border to Challenger. In my eyes it highlighted what an insanely amazing accomplishment it was that out of all these launches, only two have ever resulted in failure of that type. This is the first reliable, reusable vehicle to ever bring humans to space. Given the violence of the launches and sheer absurdity of strapping a winged vehicle to the site of a rocket, it highlights (in my view) what an amazing feat it was, even in light of [the] Challenger.
Anyway, while we’re on the subject, don’t miss some of our favorite space shuttle videos from times past — like Endeavour’s Launch Viewed from Booster Cameras, William Shatner’s Narration of a Film Documenting the History of the Space Shuttle, and The Best of NASA Space Shuttle Videos from 1981 to 2010.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
via Kottke
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