As I look back from where I am in retirement, after spending thirtyone years supporting and leading testing at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), I can reflect on one event I feel especially proud to have been part of. When people think about the Space Shuttle, sadly, most remember the Challenger and that terrible explosion as it launched, and the disastrous final flight of the Columbia, which disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere. Because of those tragedies, we lost fourteen great individuals who certainly showed the world how dangerous space travel can be.
I’m going to describe, from my perspective, the first orbital flight of the Shuttle and my role in supporting that dangerous event. I was a member of the Shuttle Support Team for that test mission and the five missions that followed.
It was the morning of Friday, April 11, 1981, at Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert of Southern California. I was excited and a little apprehensive, but focused on final preparation to support the first orbital mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia. I was the crew chief of a squad of technical specialists who had prepared radars, specialized motion picture tracking cameras, and other electronic equipment to capture data for NASA, working with staff at Dryden Flight Research Center, also located on Edwards AFB.
My crew was a mix of young and old, military and civil service from across America, and we had spent much of the past year supporting NASA as they flew the Shuttle Enterprise during the Approach and Landing Test (ALT). The Enterprise was, by design, exactly like the Columbia in terms of flight characteristics. It was taken into the air on the back of the “mother ship,” a Boeing 747. At some point in the test profile, it was released from the 747 to allow astronauts to glide it back to the runway, proving that the Columbia could safely land like an airplane on the Edwards runway. The next day, the Columbia would launch for the first time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and, hopefully, complete a successful two-day mission, landing on the main runway at Edwards.
I was a thirty-three-year-old U.S. Air Force (USAF) member stationed at Edwards AFB. I’d been at Edwards since 1979 and had supported developmental testing of several types of airplanes, including fighters, bombers, and cargo aircraft. Friday was busy; my crew ran through every checklist on our equipment to make sure we were ready to track the Shuttle and capture all the data for the approach and landing in a few days.
On Saturday, the Shuttle successfully launched into space from the Kennedy Space Center, was orbiting Earth, and all USAF systems were working perfectly. Our equipment was a critical part of the Space Shuttle Network. NASA used satellites and several ground-based tracking stations that continuously monitored the Shuttle’s exact location. So, my crew and our equipment were part of that, and later became the primary group responsible for tracking and capturing data during the approach and landing.
I divided my crew into two groups working twelve-hour shifts, and that too went flawlessly, although the tension could be cut with a knife. I worked at the Test Mission Control area in Building 4970, which was called SPORT. That stood for Space Positioning Optical Radar Tracking. All USAF tests at Edwards were tracked and managed by SPORT. For Shuttle support, we were electronically linked to a similar set of rooms at Dryden and followed every aspect of the Shuttle mission.
The entire country was glued to their televisions, watching the Shuttle, knowing at any second something could go wrong. Because of that potential, on the second day of the mission, the astronauts, John Young and Robert Crippen, received a congratulatory phone call from Vice President George H. W. Bush, thanking them for their dedication and bravery on behalf of the nation. President Ronald Reagan had originally intended to visit the Mission Control Center at Houston during the mission and make that call, but at the time, he was still recovering from an assassination attempt that had taken place two weeks prior to the launch.
Each orbit took about ninety minutes, and on Monday, after fifty-three hours and thirty-six orbits, we were notified that the Shuttle was coming home. Things at Edwards got even more intense. Mission Control at the Johnson Center in Houston was now focused on Edwards and our part of the mission.
As the Shuttle burned through the atmosphere during reentry, we suddenly lost connectivity between the Shuttle, Dryden, and one of our critical radar sites, so tracking information did not reach our systems. A Range Operations Officer at the console in the Control Center at SPORT recognized the problem first and shouted, “We’ve lost Radar 38!”
The boss turned and looked directly at me, fear filling his face, and said, “Get to 38 as fast as you can and fix this!”
ThelocationofRadar38wasabout a mile from SPORT. I jumped into a pickup with my test equipment bag and took off. I knew that without this radar, we would struggle at best to find and track the Shuttle during approach and landing, and therefore, our data could be worthless for NASA’s post-mission analysis. The Shuttle was about forty minutes from touchdown and still traveling at about 17,500 miles per hour when I arrived at the radar and began troubleshooting.
I was sweating bullets as I began diagnosing the problem on the Targeting and Data Collection System (TACDACS) at the site. TACDACS was the interface between the radars and the camera and tracking sites around Edwards. The radars were to detect the Shuttle and provide its location to the cameras and trackers. I hurriedly checked what I thought might be the problem, found a malfunctioning circuit board, and replaced it. The TACDACS system began operating, and Radar 38 quickly acquired the Shuttle and began transmitting information to the sites.
I gave out a YAHOO! Then I gathered up my gear and sped back to SPORT.
When I entered Mission Control at SPORT, I was greeted by shouts of joy and approval, but the Shuttle was still airborne, so we stayed focused on the job. Being treated like a hero by my peers for the next several days will be a memory that will last forever. The landing went beautifully, and astronaut Young remarked over the radio, “This is the world’s greatest all-electric flying machine, I’ll tell you that! That was super!”
After the landing and the astronauts had deplaned, everyone, including my crew, was invited to join Young, Crippen, and the local NASA team down at the Dryden Center for a celebration. NASA gave everyone a jacket with the words Shuttle Support Team colorfully emblazoned across the back, and a team patch like Young and Crippen wore on their uniforms.
Seventy anomalies were detected during the mission, including damaged thermal protection tiles. The damaged tiles could have created a tragedy, but we dodged that bullet. Over the years, the Shuttle’s takeoffs and landings became so routine that most of the public never noticed a launch unless a tragedy occurred during the mission. But I know how much people working in the background put into research and development, the many hours spent, the anxiety, the not knowing for certain that all would go well. And I know how essential that team of unsung heroes “in the background” was to moving the United States forward into space.
The mission would be appropriately considered highly successful. Every major milestone and question for that first mission was answered. And a very special memory was created for all of us who were privileged to be part of that amazing event.