My STS-1 Story
Keith’s note: I had an interesting job at STS-1 – I was California Governor Jerry Brown’s advance man. I took a few days off from my job at Rockwell Downey where I stood inside of Discovery and Atlantis as they were being built to work for my old boss (I worked on his 1980 presidential campaign). The trip to the launch was insane. The area was still somewhat boarded up after the post-Apollo economic downturn and things were opening up for the shuttle era. So everyone was happy on the Space Coast.
At one point I: drove a large Chevy back and forth between the Mouse Trap and the old Holiday Inn (more than once) with Mercury and Gemini astronauts inside: tried to get Jerry to say hi to Christopher Reeve (he did, what a really nice guy he was); tried to keep Jerry away from Pat Boone (failed); set up a dinner with our group and (then) Rep. Bill Nelson – who then stood us up; and spent a lot of time talking to author James Michener about the new space book he was writing. The son of the President of Mexico, Nichelle Nichols, astronaut Rusty Schweickart, and Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand were in our traveling entourage.
Before the launch I also spent a lot of time walking around with George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg (who joined our merry bunch) looking at IMAX cameras and bothering Tom Brokaw while a very patient Judy Resnik answered questions. We then walked down A1A to Al Neuharth’s Punkin Center. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” premiered 15 June 1981. Let’s just say I got a slight preview of coming attractions. I left them saying “keep doing what you are doing”. They did.
12 April 1981 At 3:47 you can see Rep. Bill Nelson (D) FL in the VIP area shouting “GO”. I was standing 10 feet away and you can see me in the lower right with the sunglasses on, hands on my hips at 4:17.
After the launch at Al Neuharth’s house I let Alan Shephard and Buzz Aldrin use my motel key to scratch their signatures on the viewfinder of the Hasselblad camera that our photographer Jamie Stoughton used – his father was JFK’s photographer (he also took the B&W photos of me and Jerry at the launch). An hour or so after the launch a helicopter flew over the house and dropped bundles of Florida Today newspapers showing pictures of the launch we just saw. The entire event was surreal.
Oh and then there was the landing. At the landing I offered Nastassja Kinski a donut on the bus up to Edwards and she acted insulted that I’d offer her junk food. At the VIP area John Denver and I were trying to figure out how to properly use the Canon A-1 cameras we had both just bought. And then the shuttle dropped like a brick onto the runway. I was 25. My feet never touched through ground through out this mission.
That is my STS-1 story.
Wonderful story Keith. Thanks for sharing that.
I remember where I was on April 14th, 1981; slept over a friends house, and remember watching the launch on his little 10 in black and white TV! 6 years from Apollo Soyuz to a Shuttle Launch. It takes that long for NASA HQ to release an AO for an explorer and then launch it. How times have slowed down.
Again, great share with some nice details.
I remember the launch attempt two days before where at T-20 minutes the sync between ground and orbiter computers didn’t sync up (or something like that). Which was puzzling as such had to rehearsed and practiced many times before. So later in that morning attending math class I can see almost all the students like me trying to stay awake as we all got up at very early to see the launch (pacific time). But it launches on same day of 20 years before Gagarin’s flight. I’m old enough to remember getting up really early to watch Apollo launches and what surprised me was how fast the Shuttle leaped off the pad.
I remember getting up early to watch that Friday too.
Fantastic story, Keith. Many thanks to you for sharing it. My version is a bit more prosaic. I watched the launch on a TV in a student lounge as a freshman in college. Like then-Rep. Nelson, I was yelling GO! at the screen, with some spicier language thrown in, too. It felt so good to see us getting off the ground again.
Keith, thanks for your memories. I was 17 and attended the launch but you mentioned so many people from my youth and some are still around like Administrator Nelson. I truly miss Al Neuharth and his house Pumpkin Center – It broke my heart when it burned down. I think it was great that Nichelle Nichols was at the first Shuttle launch and at the last one. If you look just behind the security officer you will see Nichelle looking into the astronaut van as it heads to the pad. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
She was on our bus – and we went to the Pumpkin Center after the launch – I walked there from our hotel with George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg. Yes, it was a fun walk.
You can tell that was the last launch, note the orange “Artifact” label next to the driver’s foot.
So many luminaries Keith!
I worked at a different division of Rockwell. I remember watching on TV as ignition occurred, and a huge steam cloud engulfed the orbiter. For what seemed like many seconds but was probably shorter, the cloud grew with no orbiter in sight. Then majestically the top of the external tank appeared as the orbiter climbed skyward. It was an amazing moment.
Retrospectively it is astonishing how brave Young and Crippen were
flying this vehicle for the very first time the entire stack had ever been launched, manned. A very dangerous mission, yet successful.
NASA was a lot more ballsy in those days.
My feet never touched the ground.
Talk about once in a lifetime experiences!
I remember a friend of my friend Spike said he was going to drive to Florida to watch the launch, then drive to white sands to watch the landing. I was already 29, and living in Minnesota, so couldn’t make the gypsy journey like that, but I wanted to.
That friend of a friend had already made a similar drive years before to see one of the Apollo launches. I was much more jealous of that trip.
I was working as an engineering manager fielding the first computerized systems for the U.S. Army Training Command in Germany near the Fulda Gap where we expected the Russians to invade if they ever did. Had STS-1 failed, the program would have either been cancelled or delayed for years and I probably would not have gotten a job with NASA’s MSFC Spacelab Program Office four months later nor would I have likely written Rocket Boys because I wouldn’t have had a good ending (going to work for NASA) nor would October Sky the movie been made and many thousands of students prompted by these works to take up STEM studies nor would I have met Elon Musk at Space Camp (we talked rockets) nor would Jeff Bezos been inspired to start Blue Origin (he said the movie got him thinking about building a rocket company). A lot of history was made that day, some unseen, some still echoing across the pathways to space. I’m kind of happy about the way things worked out. Kismet.
I remember watching it in my bedroom on TV as a 15 year-old.
This is my favorite way to remember that majestic day, Countdown by Rush: https://www.youtube.com/wat…
I remember you mentioning that you were with James Michener at the launch, which I thought was pretty amazing just by itself. But I somehow never heard about the rest of your incredible experience until now.
Looks like Jerry Brown signed your launch photo, the one where you are looking up and he is looking up with binoculars. What a great memento.