Space Shuttle in Uniform

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Space Shuttle in Uniform

Sivolella, Davide

Abstract

Reporting the launch of Discovery for the STS-51C mission in the early afternoon of January 24, 1985, the New York Times said, “The sky was so clear that viewers could still see the speck of light five minutes after lift-off.” But the transparency of the mission was inversely proportional to that of the Earth’s atmospheric shroud. In fact, almost nothing was known about the payload or the mission objectives, because for the first time NASA had broken its custom of issuing a press kit to the media and the general public to outline the flight. The agency did not even disclose the launch time, activating the large countdown display that sits on the grass of the KSC press site just 5 minutes prior to lift-off. Instead of thousands of viewers eager to be rattled, shaken and overwhelmed by the power of a Shuttle launch, the event was witnessed by only about two hundred people.