Before the Space Shuttle made its first official launch in 1982, astronauts would return to earth vertically, in parachute-fitted capsules that were difficult to steer and could only contain a limited amount of materials. The concept for a "space plane" that could make a horizontal landing and be re-launched was the next logical step.
On July 8, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will make its final flight, marking an end to thirty years of American space exploration. The launch from the Kennedy Space Center will carry a crew for a twelve-day mission aboard the International Space Station, and when Atlantis returns to Earth it will be decommissioned.
The Shuttle program captivated not just regular Joes like you or me, but artists, musicians, movie directors and video game designers. Here are some of our favorite shuttle appearances from the world of media.
- Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space - Activision: Activision's Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space used state-of-the-art Atari 2600 graphics to create one of the most complex games the system had ever seen, requiring players to use not just the joystick but all of the console's system switches as well to launch the craft, dock with a satellite and return to Earth safely. The manual itself is thirty pages long!
- Space Camp - Twentieth Century Fox: Astronauts had always been national heroes, but with frequent shuttle launches, it started to look more and more likely that average Joes would get a chance to sample zero-gravity for themselves. That still hasn't happened yet (unless you're very rich), but 1986's Space Camp was designed as a wish-fulfillment opportunity for young spacemen as through a technical error they find themselves actually piloting the shuttle. Unfortunately, the film hit screens just months after the shocking Challenger explosion that destroyed the shuttle and killed all seven passengers, so it didn't do too well.
- Punky Brewster - NBC: The Challenger disaster also hit the home screens, most famously with a memorable episode of Punky Brewster. Titled "Accidents Happen," it follows Punky's quest to be an astronaut until the explosion of the shuttle causes her to not only reconsider her career but also her own mortality. In retrospect, this show was kind of freaking dark.
- Countdown - Rush: If there is any modern band that perfectly embraces the combination of geekiness and cool that is the space program, it's Rush. The Canadian prog overlords even paid tribute to the shuttle in the song "Countdown." Geddy, Neal and Alex were invited to watch the Columbia launch from a special VIP area at Kennedy, and it obviously imprinted on their minds very strongly.
- Transformers - Hasbro: There were a number of Space Shuttle toys, but for my money the best were the multiple Transformers that disguised themselves as shuttles. Because we see space shuttles around all the time. The Autobots had Sky Lynx, which didn't even turn into a humanoid robot but rather a sort of pterodactyl cat thing, but the Decepticons one-upped them with Astrotrain, who could turn into a Space Shuttle or a... train.
- Armageddon - Touchstone Pictures: And, of course, the most epic use of the shuttle comes from Michael Bay, who pressed it into service for his disaster movie Armageddon. A team of deep core drillers set out to stop an asteroid the size of Texas from plowing into the Earth and killing us all. They pull it off, which begs the question: with no more Space Shuttles, what are we going to do when this happens in real life? Spit and wish?
