How The Space Shuttle Program Came To An End [4K] | Space Shuttle: The Final Mission | Spark

on the 8th of july 2011 atlantis left the earth the last time after 30 years and 135 missions the space shuttle was making its final flight i'm kevin fong and i used to work at nasa with the shuttle's medical research team for the last month of this last mission i was granted unprecedented access to the shuttle program it's a machine that's going to come alive very very soon i was with the astronauts as they went through their final weeks of training i'm glad i'm wearing this not that on this one bracing myself against the seat in front dropping out of the sky like a stone here and i found the unsung heroes who've worked on the shuttle since the beginning after this is all gone what's next for you to go look for another job and i met the man in charge of it all during one of the most extraordinary and emotional months in nasa's history today this being atlantis last flight was really special for me um this was the first first space shuttle like event before this era finally passes into history i want to see what it takes to get this remarkable machine into orbit and along the way i want to talk to the men and women who've worked here at nasa as part of the shuttle program and understand what the last three decades has meant to them [Music] [Music] [Music] thirty years ago i was i was sitting in an assembly hall at school watching the first shuttle launch off the cape on a color television and back then i never imagined that i get a chance to work here and having done that it's just incredible to be able to get the chance to come back and see the last shuttle launch in the last 25 days of the last flight of the last space shuttle thank you i'm on my way to johnson space center in houston texas johnson's home to the astronauts and their training ground and it's where i used to work they seem to be expecting me and i want to say hello to some friends in my old department the shuttle medical research team guys this was your doing yeah it's good to see you got your flag oh yes yeah is it strange with the shuttle finishing now oh i know it's sad i hate to see that but you've been with the program all along 25 yeah i've been here 25 years so it's weird to see it go isn't it i know yeah it is sad [Music] today i've been invited to see the final shuttle crew and the mission control team being put through their paces this is mission control the nerf center for shuttle flight operations commander chris ferguson is in charge of this final shuttle crew they have a gruelling day of simulations ahead of them it's a full dress rehearsal for their worst nightmares [Music] this is a high fidelity full motion simulation everything is replicated down to the last detail to the crew and mission control it will feel like the real thing what you're seeing there is this little cabin and on the inside those black boxes are tvs facing into that cabin showing them exactly the view that they're going to get showing all of these launch scenarios all of the emergency abort scenarios they they have a pretty good idea from being in that what it's going to be like things go wrong on the day neither the mission controllers nor the crew know what the training team is going to serve up today navigating through those simulated emergencies is going to be quite a feat liftoff confirmed happy liftoff world program houston guidance around roger roll atlantis this is a room full of people each of them with a mission critical task but the most important person down there at the moment is the flight director richard jones just sitting just off to the left there and it's his job to orchestrate all of this to keep that crew and that vehicle safe it's only seconds after launch and the crew are in trouble they've lost an engine and there are problems with the cooling system what's going on we've lost pdl we're back we've got a link on the right we do see the helium leak on the right chunky you're going to work the procedure and tell him he's still hot and you're still hot mike chunky the crew must decide whether to proceed or abort flight posture it's an upper system leak the shuttle is past the point of no return from here they either continue to space or perform an emergency landing across the atlantic thank you negative return atlantis negative return stayed out open stay out open chunky it's a tank leak one wrong decision here and this emergency could become a catastrophe press the ato you can select estrus looks like the right will make it to 23k junkie they can't make it to orbit so decide to land in estrus france okay dps we have a little bit more time that transatlantic flight would take a jumbo jet nine hours but shuttle will do it in just 35 minutes one more time folks we're gonna have to live with that hot mic on board and how many launchers have you overseen in your timeless flight director i've seen five before this is going to be my sixth one what would you say to people who shrug and they say well it's been flying for 30 years space flight human spaceflight mostly it's become routine to what extent does it feel routine to you putting humans on top of that that explosion in a way that is going on underneath it just to get it into orbit it's just amazing and there's it's not even close to being retained you must have sims where everything goes wrong and theoretically the crew and the vehicle are lost how seriously do you take those those are really ugly there are scenarios sometimes that you just cannot win sometimes you might have to do a bailout or it's a loss of control those are those feel horrible when you have to go through them but there's so much to learn when you do go through and they're almost like they're like they're pieces of gold x helium tank as the morning unfolds the crew faced launch after launch each one featuring a new emergency first pickup we're going aoa do we need all this capability i've chucked the kitchen sink at them during the launch simulations they've had engine failures they've tried to get to orbit couldn't get to orbit they then had to fly across the atlantic look for a landing site in europe and it's far from a foregone conclusion that this simulation is going to work out all right support ato atlantis abort ato ato this is chris ferguson sorry to jump you know a long long day in front of after four hours in the sim i get to meet commander chris ferguson he only found out in january this year that the mission he was preparing for would be the shuttle's last so 24 days now before you go have you managed to believe that you're actually going to be commanding the last flight yeah i haven't counted the 24 days but it's that close huh it's that close yeah they're they're coming by and uh they're clicking off pretty quickly now you know i think i speak on behalf of my crew we are extraordinarily honored and we're going to make we're going to make everyone in america very proud of the 30 years of a successful space shuttle of course the last landing is going to be kind of uh i guess historical we want to make sure we we recognize the right people at the right time when it's all over have you imagined that moment we'll stop on it's going to be hard to capture 30 years of tremendous shuttle operation in a in a sentence or two when it's all said and done we'll try to say something that's fitting have you thought about what those words are going to be i have but i can't let you know now oh come on no no [Music] i'm in florida on my way to cape canaveral if houston is the home of the astronauts then florida's kennedy space center is where the rockets are kept and it's where atlantis will launch from in 20 days time [Music] since it last flew in 2010 the spacecraft has undergone a complete refit [Music] as this mission got closer it was transferred to the giant vehicle assembly building where it was attached to its fast external tank and twin solid rocket boosters a week ago this whole assembly was transferred to the launch pad taking five hours to make the three mile trip and it's there that atlantis will undergo all the final system checks that will make it ready for launch [Music] [Music] normally it's impossible to get up close to a shuttle on the launch pad but today an astronaut friend from my nasa days is visiting atlantis that's a much better way to come to come to florida dan taney has a vital role on the ground for this mission he's part of the capcom team he'll be in mission control providing the vital communications link with the astronauts in space greeting crew nice ride [Music] dan has launched on two shuttle missions he knows this journey well for this final flight nasa has chosen pad 39a the same launch pad that sent armstrong and his crew to the moon in 1969. so on launch morning you get out of the astrovan and uh you know you stand here and you think it's unbelievable that humans could uh put something so complicated together and what an incredible privilege it is not only to stand there but hopefully in about four or five hours i'm gonna be circling the earth at 17 000 miles an hour uh it's really awesome you look up the vehicle and uh steam is coming from it there's some creaking there are motors that you hadn't heard before you know you feel like it's a beast that is uh awakening and you get this awareness that it's a it's a machine that's going to come alive very very soon at the base of the launch platform a glimpse shuttle sleeping in its protective metal cocoon this is the tail the tail yeah the tail the rubber shuttle yeah here's the rudder and the tail structure those tiles and they're close enough to touch but you don't touch them oh no you don't touch anything out here yeah we don't touch the flight hardware unless it's a requirement for a successful shuttle launch millions of things have to go right if they don't the results could be catastrophic what you can see here in these stainless steel things there are four of them on each srb so there's eight all together these are the hold down bolts that hold the entire stack the four and a half million pounds of space shuttle and booster to the launch platform on these four points now what's interesting is at the moment of launch the moment the srbs are ignited there are pyrotechnics on the bolts and they're blown apart to release the space shuttle from the launch platform and that's just another component that has to work has to work 100 if one of those bolts were to fail would be a catastrophic failure you cannot turn off the solid rocket boosters so it's a it's a must work function let's go it's probably here first and last time i'll be catching a lift on the top of the space shuttle while it's on the launch this is the astronauts lift and i'm going up 195 feet to the level of the flight deck this is it welcome to 195. it's where every shuttle crew has entered their vehicle on launch day and it's a highly restricted area kevin this is it once you're ready and you have to be ready uh they'll uh wave you in and you make the walk out that's uh to the white room you get ready and and then you climb in from the white room through the hatch into the shuttle get strapped in so kev here's a piece of technology that uh that passed us by for the first couple times we're up here but then somebody clued us in and they go you know that phone up on the 195 works it's a functional phone and so what we started uh getting smart and doing is uh on launch morning bringing a couple phone numbers with you and you call your wife hey just about to get on the space shuttle i'll see you in a couple weeks or i called my mom and it was a did you really do that absolutely hey i had 20 minutes before i got strapped in [Music] it is just beautiful up here and yeah 200 feet in the air off the coast you know some sunshine breeze in your hair and you're parked next to a hydrogen bomb and if you're the crew you're just about to get into a machine for the next few days if not few months and leave the earth at 17 000 miles an hour [Applause] [Music] the astronauts are about to move to the next phase of their training and it's time for some real flying the two hardest feats in all of rocket science are starting and stopping [Music] commander chris ferguson and atlantis pilot doug hurley are about to practice landings in a specially adapted jet that behaves exactly like a returning shuttle and they've invited me along for the ride looking forward to this yeah these are fun i mean it's you know we don't do a ton of suited ones but we do fair amount you know we do a lot of simulators i'm glad i'm wearing this not that on this yeah that's pretty warm the shuttle returns to earth unpowered and falls from the sky at an angle seven times steeper than a commercial jet our shuttle trainer which is a modified gulfstream tube business jet it has the exact same flying qualities of the space shuttle of course in order to get the flying qualities of a space shuttle you need to employ drastic techniques like you need to deploy the landing gear at 30 000 feet and the engines are actually working to push the shuttle training airplane backwards it's a tremendous rate of descent i still remember my first experience it was 30 000 feet i looked down at the runway as a tiny little strip right under my left arm and i said there is no way we are going to possibly land on that thing and he says okay you're ready i'm going to show you and you know it's amazing you come downhill really fast and but it works and the space shuttle is the same way so i'm about to get on this aircraft chris ferguson commander of sts-135 is going to take it up to 20 000 odd feet put those engines into reverse sticking in a 20 degree down dive get about 10 feet off the runway as far as i can tell pull up go round do that 10 times it's going to be interesting the shuttle is designed so it can be steered at hypersonic speeds in the upper atmosphere but as it gets close to home below the speed of sound its short wings mean that it sinks like a stone so we're on the climb on the way up to that first of those first of those approaches uh we're getting ourselves up to something like 20 000 feet now getting ready to put ourselves to that very steep dive with the engines in reverse chris ferguson's side of the cockpit is identical to the flight deck of atlantis there you go that noise is the engines of this aircraft going into reverse we're experiencing the dead weight and powerlessness of the shuttle and looking at the window now i am looking straight down at the ground we're falling at 28 000 feet per minute [Music] [Applause] all the way down bracing myself against the seat in front feels like you're falling out of the sky here and just a few feet from the ground we pull up and saw back into the sky [Music] [Applause] that's just amazing it's just amazing well they've come down 16 000 feet by the time we're lined up with the runway you really do feel like this thing's pointed right at the ground dropping out of the sky like a stone here a mission commander has to complete at least a thousand of these practice runs before they fly the real shuttle chris ferguson has completed one thousand [Applause] and off we go again it's just an incredible ride it's just amazing that is the craziest thing i think i've ever done that was that was an hour and a half of going 28 000 to zero twenty eight thousand to zero twenty eight thousand to zero um it was just incredible just incredible the thing just drops out the sky like a rock and you're being flown by the guy who's about to command the last space shuttle during its mission there are many phases when the shuttle is under extreme stress the fierce heat of re-entry is more than enough to destroy an unprotected vehicle on the first of february 2003 space shuttle columbia was due to return from a 16-day mission in columbia houston we see your entire pressure messages and we did not copy your instrumentation max columbia houston uhf comcheck [Music] in the skies above texas colombia broke up as she hit the upper atmosphere [Music] her insulating shield had been damaged on takeoff and she could not survive the heat of re-entry [Music] all seven crew members were lost [Music] terry white has worked on the shuttle's thermal protection system since the beginning his last job is to make atlantis ready for mission with atlantis on the launch pad he showed me around another shuttle discovery which flew her last mission in february 2011. the orbiter sees extreme temperature of about 3000 degrees fahrenheit on re-entry so it's really important to have the thermal protection system intact to make sure that the orbiter its payload and the astronauts get home safe all right where do you take one of the tiles off of the vehicle this is what it would look like that's a lot lighter than it looks like it should be that feels a bit more like a polystyrene block yes that's the closest thing is similar to it these are easily damaged you can actually hear one when i push my thumb into it you can hear it crack the coating is about the thickness of an eggshell now this is one of the new towels this one's so strong you can actually bang it on the end of the table and these well it's developed after develop before the columbia incident but we started using them after the columbia incident that was a way to make the vehicles even safer so if you want to a new tile just one tile on the vehicle end to end start to finish how long would that take ten days to two weeks depending on where it's at but that one time one time how long did it take to put 24 000 on a couple of years and they're about to send this to the museum after this is all gone after these processing facilities are empty what's next for you to go look for another job i've been doing this for 33 years but i'm not quite ready to retire so i'll go look for something else to do [Music] the last three decades have seen an extraordinary team of specialists like terry come together each an authority in their own field each one dedicated to a particular system needed to make the shuttle what it is and with no new craft fully developed to take manned space flight to the next level this unique group of people will have to be broken up [Music] today the astronauts have arrived in florida for a dress rehearsal that's right permission to go aboard absolutely fishing to go aboard have a great day guys it's the first time they'll enter the shuttle on the pads waiting for them is another specialist team the clothes out crew who make sure that the astronauts are fully equipped and ready for launch these guys have obsessive attention to detail as a job requirement they must check every last aspect of the astronauts equipment powering their flight suits and strapping them into the vehicle you are literally the last people on earth the crew see before they go we connect with them when they come in there and uh we make up a point to connect with them because we want to make them comfortable we're there for them and uh to help them do their job all right i'm going in she's going in look out chick coming aboard we've got to know several over the years and i've got to be real good friends with a lot of them we want to do it you know but we're not going to get the shot you know so when we see them do it we love it you know and we connect with all of them the best we can one of my biggest jobs that i'm going to have on launch day is accounting for him to make sure he's not in there when i close the hatch because he would go and fly on it you know as we all would we would like to that's my main job my main checklist all right guys and then the last thing we do is we look at the commander in the window and he's usually laying there and he gives us thumbs up he or she and we like that part we get the wave to them and then we go down the elevator and we go over here in this field and we wait we have to close and lock the hatch and this is the tool that you use to do that and this is the key to the space shuttle this is the key to the space shuttle this is called the locking t-tool and turn it 450 degrees and then you lock it right there from the outside and you push these tabs and remove it how many of these do you have 18. always good to have spare keys for the space shuttle i just got quite like this remove before flight label you don't want to take off with a key still in the door [Music] launch is getting ever closer so i'm lucky to be able to grab lunch with rex walheim another member of the atlantis crew i want to know how being an astronaut affects those closest to him it's really tough for the families how does your family cope and my kids since they really can remember i've been an astronaut so they've always known this is part of my job and the first time i told them i didn't tell them for a few days hey i'm going to space shuttle you know and i'll be gone for a couple weeks you know i kind of told them in their rooms and they were you know three and five at the time and uh and they kind of like okay you know it's like everybody does that so it wasn't a real big deal for them and it's kind of a big memory now but since then they kind of know this is what dad does who finds it hardest out out of everyone on launch day on launch day the spouses definitely spouses it's it's hard on them especially my wife uh it's it's hardest on them they understand what we're going through and they don't have a sense of control over it like we do when we're in the cockpit did you did you know her when you got selected on your meeting yes when i was when i was first dating her i told her i was applying to be an astronaut and being the type who who tends to worry a little more than others uh it was really kind of funny that she ended up being married to someone who's an astronaut so will she be glad when you finally stop flying yes i think when i'm done doing the flying space stuff she'll be very happy about that in less than a week the astronauts will arrive in florida for the final time they'll go into quarantine in dedicated if somewhat spartan crew quarters where every astronaut since apollo has spent their last days on earth cameras are rarely allowed here but before the crew of atlantis arrive my friend dan taney gives me a guided tour this is really our home away from home down here it's awesome when you when you come down fly t38 in the crew will and then you make the drive over here and uh just make this walk and once you get in the elevator you think oh this is unbelievable this is a real thing dan introduces me to gloria and dolores to the most important people to the astronauts in isolation alright so first of all these are the folks that keep us happy down here and you want happy crew because they provide the food one of the things that we do in the kitchen is to try to make everything as homemade as we possibly can and everything that we feed them and put on weight they put on weight they lose up in space one of the things that you know i didn't know about a week before launch there was a sheet that came around and says what kind of sandwich do you want you know on orbit sandwich what and uh i don't know uh ham and cheese i guess and and so the morning of launch these folks make sandwiches for the crew pack them away in a bag and they're on the shuttle with us uh under the sea you tie it to the seat so that it doesn't float away and then uh as soon as you get into orbit take off your suit you can have a sandwich and i didn't know that so it's and you also have cheese ham and cheese and the biggest majority of them peanut butter and jelly yeah it's a sin to say that the quarters are set up especially for each new crew i meet manager judy cooper in the astronaut common room judy has been here since the beginning looking after astronauts and their families in the run-up to launch i've been here since sts-1 i came on board in 1979 and it was the most exciting thing that you could ever ever imagine everybody you ran into every engineer every tech every astronaut it didn't matter where they worked they would have done it for free that's how cool it was i mean you're you're working on the space shuttle what else could be better than that i asked judy about the toughest times she's faced here and she spoke about the first shuttle accident challenger in 1986 i was up on the lcc roof watching it the families were there and i remember looking up and somehow you know you know you don't know the minute you realize it because i think you kind of go into shock and liftoff liftoff of the 25th space shuttle mission and it has cleared the tower challenger exploded 73 seconds into flight in the skies above florida [Music] a fault in one of the solid rocket boosters caused a catastrophic failure [Music] all seven crew members including nasa's first civilian astronaut were lost it's just so sad because this was such a great crew you know and to me they're still great and i'm so glad that what they sacrificed could mean something because we learn from that like everything else you're never ever going to make human space exploration completely safe it's always going to be like this this is a memorial to all of the nasa astronauts who have died either while training or on mission and look at that monument there is plenty of space for more names it will always be like this exploration will always be risk and without risk there is no progress [Music] first challenger and then the columbia accident cast long shadows over the programme and caused nasa to search its soul they sought to learn from their mistakes and make shuttle ever safer with the flight of atlantis days away i want to see one of the more recent weapons in that armory kenny this is uh this is your office here this is it if you will uh let's open this up we'll just undo those snaps and we'll show the cameras kenny allen is a specialist cameraman on launch day he'll be one of the closest human beings to atlantis this is our camera tracking map after colombia nasa invested 39 million dollars in specialist digital images the pictures taken reveal in minute detail any damage the shuttle experiences during launch the whole the whole system is top-notch you won't find anything better than this anywhere in the world right now there's no way and kenny i see a seat in the middle of this so that's that's your throne for the day on launch day i come out here and i sit in the seat and we hear the countdown and it's getting exciting and everything's you know nerve-wracking and as soon as the shuttle lifts off and the sound comes in your clothes everything it just starts pounding and you can see i'm in this little enclosed area and the sound waves start coming in here and it really feels like somebody's just punching on my chest you know it's neat and then at liftoff i'm concentrating right on the joystick and i look through the scope and i just i'll track throughout the duration of the flight and then as it goes up and i track down and i stop it's like yes all right we did another one you know and then you gotta rush off to go see what you did immediately after launch kenny's images can be analyzed frame by frame this is where we record uh the video that shot out on the ktm this is tip terry hey tim nice to meet you nice to meet you the imagery's stunning there's no doubt but it's not stunning just for stunning sake those groups of engineers looking at different parts of the shuttle just like i'm doing here frame by frame and they all have their own little interests their own little department and they all are looking at things in the minutest of detail every launch if the shuttle's tiles were found to be severely damaged nasa could make a call whether to undertake repairs in space or offload the crew to the international space station and abandon the shuttle you have all these cameras trained on this vehicle because of a catastrophic accident well if you go back and look at the history 135 space shuttle missions we've had two mishaps on the challenger the only thing that found out what happened or the only thing that identified what happened was photo and in the same thing with columbia when the when the foam hit the wing it was seen but what we're here for at the end of the day is to say that's that shuttle's safe it's not damaged in any way it's flying and we're gonna bring those guys home with four days to go the crew of atlantis arrive at cape canaveral on american independence day that's chris and sandy arriving in the jet on the right and uh rex and doug uh on the jet on the left uh and they're in quarantine now which means that nobody except for frontline mission operations personnel or close family are allowed within 10 feet of them well good afternoon everybody i think it's wonderful that you've all come out to join us when i know and i certainly hope that you'll have an opportunity to go home and when this is all done and enjoy some barbecue some fireworks and some apple pie the crew now in quarantine i wanted to find out what goes through the mind of an astronaut as they step away from the public gaze and think of the mission they're about to embark upon [Music] so i went to meet with dan taney again and two astronaut friends he trained with over the last decade dan has spent over four months in space greg chamitov put the last bolt in the international space station and british-born piers sellers has clocked up over 40 hours in spacewalks if we go through the arithmetic on it this is amongst the most risky jobs outside of the military during war there is i don't even like watching other people's launches you know if i'm back here i never enjoyed it you know seeing a lot of it just made me nervous and it's a dangerous business anybody who tells you otherwise is lying and launch is probably about the most dangerous phase and the more you know about the vehicle the more you know about all all the uh the very small margins uh you know there's a lot of risk so when you're watching it's nerve-wracking when you're in it it's great yeah because you're you're a girl you know you've got to proceed you have something to do you have a job explain that a bit to me because you know what can happen you've seen what can go happen and yet your launchers that's not in your mind you know they say when you climb everest you know the places where people fell on off and being killed and for shuttle both my launches you you listen for go at throttle up and you know that this is the moment right that you lost challenger and then when you're coming back home and you're coming through mach 19 you know this is when we lost colombia so you have these you pass these moments and i mean for me there was certainly relief past go throttle up and and coming in past 19 where you think wow you know i'm yeah you know not that that same thing is going to hit you but but here this was the moment and uh and you know you know i'm glad to be past it i never felt that sort of an active sense of jeopardy you know i mean i guess it was then they're in the background but i never really paid attention to it and then coming down on the shuttle and it wasn't until it got you know you know touched down and all of a sudden this i just felt this relief you know that must have been collected for months about i'm really home i'm really gonna be back i'm really gonna see my family again it's really over it's right we really got back down safely this is the question that you know everybody outside the fence is always gonna ask 30 years of shuttle 135 flights why did you do it why did we do it it's raised our ability to do things in space from a very rudimentary level to an extremely ambitious level and now look what we do i mean we have pretty much building sites up there with these gigantic arms flying around doing things so it's it's raised the level of technology and engineering enormously for 30 years so that when we do get around to doing something further out we'll have a big repository of knowledge and experience to build on the world's news crews are gearing up for launch day the astronauts and the hardware are nearing their state of readiness but there's one thing that's still out of nasa's control so worrying news 48 hours to launch and i've just heard there's a 60 chance that the thing won't launch because of the weather conditions after all that engineering all that technology it comes down to clouds and rain just gonna find out what's happening kathy winters is nasa's chief weather officer i wish i had better weather for the forecast but it is not looking favorable right now we're gonna have some showers and even potentially some thunderstorms in the area by launch time i'm kevin fong bbc you have to understand what we're british so we only ever talk about the weather uh and you're the most important weather woman in the world for me today so i just wonder what it's like to feel the pressure of getting this forecast right kathy i wouldn't call it pressure i call it exciting it's really more of an exciting situation we get into um it's not it's not really i guess a feeling like stress until maybe afterwards and you're kind of big down if you do happen to scrub but but so that's kind of how how it is the next stage in atlantis's countdown to launch is to get fuel aboard its giant external tank but over the whole of the next day the weather takes over you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realize that having lightning coming down when you're filling a vehicle with thousands and thousands of tons here we go liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen is a dangerous thing at the moment they're trying to get the rotating service structure back away from the vehicle so they can get access to it to get the fuel on board but they need to have no lightning and better weather than this and if that process slips by more than four or five hours they're gonna have to rethink the whole thing possibly gonna have to scrub it's a bit crazy in here today jeff absolutely atlantis's mission is to rendezvous with the international space station but to do that she has to launch at just the right time i'm seeing lightning i'm hearing thunder do you really think there's any chance you're getting off the ground tomorrow well the i think the weather we got that's coming in tomorrow what people have said there's some breaks in that weather in between and we only need or like it doesn't matter how bad it is beforehand it's when we get to that t-zero time frame in any given day how long is the window in which you can launch normally it's about 10 minutes long it's designed to be 10 minutes long when you're trying to hit an object going 17 000 miles an hour the ability for you to get to that point in space at the same time they are starting from zero is really a challenge so you have to shoot at just the right spot at just the right angle so you have enough of propellant and enough capability on board to be able to steer that vehicle to meet the station at the right time because otherwise you're not going to hit it it's the day before launch and taking advantage of a brief break in the weather the launch control team decide to press ahead and peel back the orbiter's protective shield she's now ready for fueling and i get my first proper look at atlantis if the weather holds atlantis will be fueled overnight ready for launch tomorrow in the early hours of the morning i get the call atlantis has been fueled countdown will begin four o'clock in the morning morning of launch it's kind of strange i i didn't really think that i would feel anything particular this morning but i don't know as time goes on i sort of start to feel like the people we've been talking to bit happy bit sad well there's there's a small part of me that doesn't want us to go today because you know then the end doesn't have to start so soon time it's quite unexpected as i arrive at kennedy i see renee and travis from the closeout crew preparing to leave for shuttle on the launch pad how are you great you ready for this this morning yes sir ready do you think the weather's going to hold for you today uh you know it's above my area of expertise i've had flight crews out there in the rain before and uh we ended up launching so i've seen perfect weather we ended up scrubbing for a towel site you know so who knows it's a space business that's what we're in if it cooperates we'll get her off the ground safe you know if it's not safe we won't go as dawn breaks the odds of a successful launch have fallen to 30 the launch window opens at 11 21 a.m if the weather forecast for that time isn't good the countdown will be scrubbed but that hasn't stopped the public turning out in force final history here magic 107.7 with the space shuttle [Music] at 7 35 a.m chris doug rex and sandy leave crew quarters for the three mile journey to the launch pad there they go they spent their last line of the building just behind me they're off to the pad now hopefully on their way to space in a couple of hours time [Music] there's so much riding on this launch today the end is hard enough no one wants to go through countdown for it to be cancelled at the 11th hour [Music] up on level 195 renee and travis are there to meet the astronauts and prepare them for flight in houston's mission control richard jones tells his team to expect a decision we're getting close folks expect a go no go in the next 10 or 15 minutes at the one mile mark kenny is primed and ready and by the countdown clock terry white is watching for opening the mentor okay and that takes care 9 10. with the astronauts strapped in and the door locked everyone is waiting to hear the weather all clear from launch director mike lineback okay guys let's get ready okay fergie uh we're starting to feel pretty good down here on the ground about this one today so on behalf of the greatest team in the world uh good luck to you and your crew on the final flight of this true american icon entity with that you were clear to launch atlanta i copy that sir thank you t-minus nine minutes and counting you know despite all the weather there i mean that cheer that you're hearing out there is everyone being told that we're still go for launch so they've dodged around the weather the rainstorms the thunderbolts the lightning it looks like it might just be clear enough they're gonna begin the final countdown to launch the giant vent hood is one of the last connections between atlantis and the launch pad when it's removed liftoff can begin [Music] 35 33 [Music] seconds due to a failure the launch is suddenly held a sensor is saying that the giant vent hood hasn't retracted and locked to verify using a camera and we're positioning camera 62 right now so it's getting pretty desperate now there are two minutes left in the launch window 31 seconds still on the clock they have less than two minutes to find out if the sensor is faulty or if the hood is indeed blocking the launch of atlantis launch control hunt for a view of the hood and a decision is made uh so we're 31 seconds to launch is counting copy ten seconds [Music] [Music] hey there roll atlantis is a roll [Music] [Music] it's the death [Music] atlantis go at throttle up no action dpdt [Music] single engine and zaragoza 104. two minutes after launch the solid rocket boosters detach and fall back to the sea [Music] native return atlantis negative return [Music] now standing by for external tank separation as she pushes through the earth's upper atmosphere atlantis detaches from its external tank chris doug sandy and rex are in orbit [Music] atlantis final mission to the international space station would last 13 days the crew deliver over four tons of food water and equipment that will allow the space station to be manned for another year in houston my friend dan taney is capcom the astronaut's connection to earth crew on the iss this is houston are you ready for the event what advice do you have for kids wanting to get into nasa and get in the field well i think our advice would be just to work really hard in school especially in science and math because that's very very important in this business sandy chris could you guys turn a flip for us in zero gravity all right look at current i love it there you go i like the socks very nice america now want the commercial sector to take over space station delivery runs freeing nasa to develop new spacecraft to take humans beyond low earth orbit until then astronauts traveling to the space station will go on russian vehicles [Music] nasa's vehicle assembly building is one of the largest structures in the world but it now lies empty and with no immediate successor to shuttle it's uncertain what will fill this void it's sort of eerie being here this place ordinarily between missions would have been a flurry of activity while they processed a vehicle but it's empty now and all of this huge beautiful specifically engineered infrastructure is never going to be used to build a shuttle again [Music] after eight days aboard the space station atlantis and a crew prepare to leave they still have to face the challenge of re-entry and landing uh we're glad to be headed home and we're happy to serve with you we'll see you then fergie thanks a million we'll see you back home take care have a safe flight it's 5 45 a.m kennedy space center and atlantis is on her way chris ferguson has to wrestle with a hundred tons of unpowered shuttle i know exactly what the view looks like from up there but this time it's for real they'll get one shot at the landing strip today this is where all of that practice in the shuttle training aircraft is going to pay off they really have to get down and they only have one opportunity to do so [Music] landing gear down and locked [Applause] [Music] the last landing of atlantis is perfect nose gear touchdown [Music] and that's it's 30 years of space shuttle program as it comes to a halt there the whole thing comes to an end after serving the world for over 30 years the space shuttle's earned its place in history and has come to a final stop thank you columbia challenger discovery endeavor and our ship atlantis thank you for protecting us and bringing this program to such a fitting end god bless all of you god bless united states of america it's a difficult day for everyone including someone i've known for many years charlie bolden the head of nasa he's had to convince the world that it's the right time for shuttle to come to an end oh how you doing charlie good to see you great to see you fantastic fantastic thanks for talking to me well do you think that we'll ever see a vehicle as complex and as capable as a space shuttle again you know shuttle is an incredible technological marvel but one of its one of its drawbacks was its complexity and and it's a vehicle that required thousand literally thousands of people just to prepare it for flight what we're going to do hopefully in the future is simplify the design make them technologically superior so that it doesn't take an army of people to prepare a vehicle and to fly it and to recover it but charlie's also a former astronaut a veteran of four shuttle missions this being atlantis last flight was really special for me um this was the first first space shuttle like a man so so i made it really special um but as the as the administrator of nasa you know my job is to do what i don't do very well and that's to stand in front of people and try not to be emotional uh you know me a long time and i'm just not a person who cannot be emotional i uh i love these people i love the vehicles i love the program i love what they stand for the final shuttle mission marks the end of an incredible era this week nasa will let go of thousands of its brightest and best like me they got an opportunity to do the clients but we owe an incredible debt of gratitude to the thousands literally tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of folk around the country who made all this possible toughest thing for you today yes it is 32 years ago i was loaned to this building for three weeks to work on the shuttle 32 years later tomorrow i clear the last things off my desk and i am no longer an employee at kennedy space center it's very funny what are people going to remember shuttle 4 what is its legacy going to be you know all they have to do is go outside on a clear night at the right time and they can see the space station go over and couldn't have been done without the show i hope it's remembered as as the biggest proudest icon of america i really do nobody else has done it i want to think that what we have done here what we have accomplished will lead to something equally as great and i choose to look at it that way you're gonna miss shuttle sure in a way but again i have to look forward you can't you can't spend time looking backwards you gotta look got to keep looking forward so for me shuttle is more than a machine and having spent a month in the company of the people who made it happen i've come to realize that its legacy is far richer than i ever imagined you know it's it's not the science or the engineering it's not the accident it's not even the space station shuttle was always more than that it changed the way we saw the universe it inspired everybody whose lives it touched and it taught a generation to dream so that for me is its legacy it is the bridge to all our futures [Music]

Channel: Spark

Views: 144,361

Keywords: bbc, space, flight, columbia, nasa, documentary, video, disaster, astronaut, spacecraft, engineering, aerospace, rocket, program, aeronautics, aviation, exploration, earth, gravity, tour, usa, news, live, images, how, discovery, 1080p, full, launch, ov-103, space shuttle, sts-133, kennedy space center tour, international space station from earth, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, science documentary, inventions creativity, scienceexplained, cape kennedy

Id: 7Yud9NHi7pQ

Length: 58min 29sec (3509 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 29 2021