Forty years ago to the day, 12 November 1981, astronauts Joe Engle & Dick Truly lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia OV-102. As the mission designation S.T.S.-2 would indicate, this was the second flight of the Space Transportation System (S.T.S.), N.A.S.A.'s ambitious post-Apollo blueprint for manned spaceflight, of which the Space Shuttle was the only part funded. S.T.S.-2 was officially a test flight, & the Columbia was equipped with ejection seats for both Engle & Truly.
Commentary: The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXLIX.
"The Explorers' Club"
We explored S.T.S.-2 in an episode of "The Explorers' Club" on Sunday, 7 November. As much as possible, we aim to explore Space Shuttle flights on their fortieth anniversaries, but in the case of S.T.S.-2 that fortieth anniversary (12-14 November 1981) overlapped with the fifty-fifth anniversary of Gemini XII (11-15 November 1966). Gemini XII was the finale of the Gemini program, which flew ten missions in twenty months across 1965-1966. 2022 will see us explore the last two Apollo Moon missions (Apollo 16 & Apollo 17) on those fiftieth anniversaries & 2023-2025 will see us explore the last four flights of Apollo spacecraft (Skylab 2, Skylab 3, Skylab 4, & the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) on those fiftieth anniversaries. As much as possible, we will explore Space Shuttle flights on those fortieth anniversaries, but if a conflict arises, such as Gemini XII & S.T.S.-2, Space Shuttle flights will be bumped to a nearby date in favor of the remaining Apollo & Skylab fiftieth anniversaries.
We are still working out the formatting of "Explorers' Club" S.T.S. episodes. A look back will show that Mercury, Gemini, & Apollo episodes follow as much as possible the same template. The larger crews present on the Space Shuttle (up to eight astronauts) will necessitate certain tweaks to the template. The good news is there are still one hundred thirty-three Shuttle flights left to cover (S.T.S.-3 through S.T.S.-135); we'll have several opportunities to perfect our technique.
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