“About darn time,” he quips, when asked about the Crew Dragon launch. Now nearly 40 years later, Crippen is ready to see NASA and SpaceX set another milestone. ![]() “On the first flight, ascent, which lasts 8.5 minutes, seemed like it went by in 30 seconds to me.” “There’s nothing like your first flight,” he explains. “That was when my pulse rate shot up, and it was pure excitement on my part.” He flew three more times after that inaugural mission, but of course, the initial trip stands out the most. “It was only when the count got into one minute that I really thought we were going to do it,” he tells PopSci. “Anybody who thinks they can statistically predict when something with two million moving parts is gonna fail is sort of smoking something they shouldn’t be, probably.”Ĭrippen remembers his heart rate rocketing to around 130 beats per minute at launch. “We didn’t have any idea about probability risk assessment when the Shuttle was first launched,” Young recounted in the 2008 Discovery Channel documentary series, When We Left Earth – The NASA Missions. “But it worked.” The then-43-year-old space rookie was joined by commander John Young, who died in 2018 at age 87.Ĭrippen and Young couldn’t draw on spaceflight history for their maiden voyage, called STS-1. Robert Crippen, now 82, remembers how the first Shuttle mission rocketed off the deck only two days after the scheduled takeoff was cancelled, or “scrubbed.” “I was pleasantly surprised by that because it was a pretty complicated vehicle, and there were lots of things that could scrub it for a launch,” he says. John Young and Robert Crippen (right) in 1979. Both shared their thoughts on what it’s like to ride a space plane that’s attached to two solid rocket boosters-and how the experience might differ for those headed to the ISS on Saturday if conditions permit. To mark the Crew Dragon launch, PopSci spoke with two Shuttle-era astronauts-one who flew on that initial 1981 mission, and another who flew on the final 2011 tour. (They did run atmospheric glide tests with a crewed orbiter that was hitched it to a 747, but those missions weren’t actually in space.) Up to that point, NASA had never before sent a rocket system up on its maiden flight with people strapped in. When the Shuttle made its debut on the Kennedy Space Center launchpad in 1981, it had two astronauts on board. It will be the first crewed launch from US soil since 2011, when the Space Shuttle orbiter made its last flight. If all goes according to plan on Saturday-the new launch date for a high-profile mission-two NASA astronauts will blast off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida, bound for the International Space Station (ISS). You can also learn more about recruitment fraud and where to report it, through the Federal Trade Commission.Update on June 1: the launch and journey to the ISS was a success. If you think you have been a victim of a fraudulent job scam, report criminal matters to the FBI, public service announcements. Be sure to report any suspicious contact to the media platform that was used. Northrop Grumman assumes no liability for recruitment fraud. ![]() Be careful when someone contacts you and take steps to protect your personal information. Northrop Grumman does not ask for any financial commitment from a candidate. If you are contacted by someone about a job at Northrop Grumman, please verify the opportunity on our Careers site before engaging with that contact. We only schedule interviews with qualified candidates who have applied to a job posting through our Careers site. Some examples may include, but are not limited to, asking you to make financial payments for travel expenses or “new hire” computer equipment. Those engaging in this illegal activity may request personal or sensitive information with the intent of gaining access to your bank information, credit card number or social security number. This kind of fraud is usually done through unsolicited emails and text messages, or through fake websites and social media accounts posing as a company. Recruitment fraud is an illegal scam that exploits job seekers into providing personal information or money for fraudulent ‘job opportunities’ on recruitment websites.
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