What is your favourite/most memorable/personal moment of manned space flight ?

Itssoeasy

I realise most of the threads I've posted here have been rememberence and things from the past. I just feel that you can't apprectiate the present without remembering the past both good and bad. And as we are all fans of manned space flight here I felt it might be nice to post about them.

Through the history of manned space flight there have been momentous moments and the not so good and I'm sure all of us remember them for our own reasons.

For me one of the most momentous would have to be Apollo 8. Apollo 8 was the mission that put humans outside the earths orbit for the first time and also gave us the first pictures of earth taken by humans.

One of the moments I wish had been momentous and special was a successful Apollo 13 mission. I mean for Jim lovell it would have the icing on the cake for his career. I mean gemini VII, XII apollo VIII and a landing one moon would have capped off a wonderful career.

irishgeo

its memorable for me buts its fairly recent. When I seen the space shuttle and external fuel tank over ireland after launching from cape canaveral.

ps200306

irishgeo wrote: »

its memorable for me buts its fairly recent. When I seen the space shuttle and external fuel tank over ireland after launching from cape canaveral.

I remember that too, and had a great view of it. The thing that amazed me was being able to clearly distinguish the colours of the two objects -- the white shuttle and the ice-pop orange external tank trailing behind.

Going back much further, I was at Cape Canaveral to see the STS-34 launch in 1989, when Atlantis carried the Galileo spacecraft to orbit en route to Jupiter.

JupiterKid

The repair of an Intelsat satellite by Space Shuttle astronauts back in 1992. It was a feat of improvisation and the satellite was needed for the imminent Barcelona aolympics.

My other memory would be the Mir crash in the late 90s where the crew managed to get themselves out of a very dangerous situation.

mickmackey1

When all is said and done, only Apollo 11 will be remembered for ever.

irishgeo

mickmackey1 wrote: »

When all is said and done, only Apollo 11 will be remembered for ever.

im pretty sure when the first person steps on mars, its going to be remembered too.

mickmackey1

irishgeo wrote: »

im pretty sure when the first person steps on mars, its going to be remembered too.

If we land on Europa, Titan etc than Mars will be relegated in importance. Apollo will always be first.

Itssoeasy

Actually the inspiration for this thread was because I was watching old NASA missions and I'd forgotten that the first shuttle mission the external tank was white not orange. Of course that's a famous moment in manned space flight. STS 1 had the man who I'm convinced has ice in his vains and not blood, John young. What a legend John young is.

xper

Most memorable in terms of clarity and impact for me would have to be the first shuttle launch too. I distinctly remember watching the coverage that Sunday. More remarkable to me though, given that I don't recall my childhood very clearly generally, is that I do remember news coverage of the Soyuz-Apollo docking in 1975. I was five. Must be my earliest memory of an event outside my own immediate world.

ScumLord

This thread is racist against dogs.

irishgeo wrote: »

its memorable for me buts its fairly recent. When I seen the space shuttle and external fuel tank over ireland after launching from cape canaveral.

I remember that one too, the speed it zipped across the sky was incredible. I'm used to seeing jets in the sky and the Space shuttle was nothing like that.

Ghost Train

For me I loved watching some of the work done on the space station during the later shuttle missions, moving bits around, upgrading parts

But the final space shuttle servicing mission of the hubble was my favourite to follow and watch, watched a good bit of the EVAs. I must watch the Hubble movie sometime

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-125

Meeting a Challenge
During Servicing Mission 4, astronauts accomplished a feat never envisioned by the telescope creators - on-site repairs for two instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). Both had stopped working; ACS after an electrical short in 2007, and STIS after a power failure in 2004. To perform the repairs, astronauts had to access the interior of the instruments, switch out components, and reroute power. The successful completion of this task, along with the addition of the two new instruments, gave Hubble a full complement of five functioning instruments for its future observations.
Preparing for the Future
Since SM4 is expected to be the last astronaut mission to Hubble, one of the goals was to reinforce and reinvigorate the telescope's basic spaceflight systems. Astronauts replaced all of Hubble's batteries, which were 18 years old, with new, improved ones. Astronauts installed six new gyroscopes, which are used to point the telescope, and a Fine Guidance Sensor, which locks onto stars as part of the pointing system. They covered key Hubble equipment bays with insulating panels called New Outer Blanket Layers, to replace protective blankets that had broken down over the course of their long exposure to the harsh conditions of space. And they installed a new device, the Soft Capture Mechanism. This simple device will allow a robotic spacecraft to attach itself to Hubble someday, once the telescope is at the end of its life, and guide it through its descent into Earth's atmosphere.

http://hubblesite.org/the_telescope/team_hubble/servicing_missions.php#sm4

Capt'n Midnight

mickmackey1 wrote: »

When all is said and done, only Apollo 11 will be remembered for ever.

"Let's go"
- Yuri Gagarin , April 12, 1961 "POYEKHALI!"

mickmackey1

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

"Let's go"
- Yuri Gagarin , April 12, 1961 "POYEKHALI!"

Yeah forgot that, kinda proves my point :pac:

arkrow

Tom Hanks and the lads getting back down safe.

Pat Dunne

The original and best, "Sputnik".

Beeker

Apollo 8 for me was the most exciting space flight of its time, as Itssoeasy said it was the first time Humans had left the Earth and headed away. I remember a quote from mission control shortly after TLI (Trans Lunar Injection,the burn which sent them on their way from earth orbit)
"Borman Lovell and Anders now travelling faster then any humans in history"
That still puts a tingle down my spine, what a time to be alive when we were doing new and adventurous things.

After that is STS-1 in 1981 I was 14 and could not wait for the launch, what a day, I still remember the excitement of that launch.
STS 41B in Feb of 1984 stand out as a great flight, it was the first time that the manned maneuvering unit was used in space. Bruce McCandless became the first Human to space walk without a tether.

Finally STS 41D in Aug 1984 and STS-126 in Nov 2008 because I was a Kennedy Space Centre for both launches

For the future I am looking forward to the first commercial crew launch from the USA hopefully in 2018 a return to the Moon and if I'm still around the first steps on Mars.

Wibbs

One of my first memories is looking up at the moon with my dad when the last Apollo mission was up there and then bawling my eyes out when it left, because "the moon would be all alone again". Mr Gene Cernan's recent passing brought it back to me again.

I remember the first Shuttle mission and the first free flight of the Enterprise "glider". Then watching the launch of a Shuttle(which one escapes me) on a family holiday in Florida in the early 80's. And a man chatting with my dad telling him the Saturn V made the Shuttle look and sound like a firework.