Emergency brainwash post...
Crippen and Young... Two of the hottest fighter pilots ever. The kind of pilots who flew F-4 Phantoms into Vulcan gun range and traded heavy metal with comrades in Migs, then flipped them off, canopy to canopy, as they thundered past in afterburner.
Thirty years ago, these two Gods of Thunder did something so audacious it is hard to wrap our safety first before anything else minds around their amazing feat.
STS-1, Columbia, lifted off with these two guys in the cockpit. I remember listening to the launch on a car radio... One of them said, "It's a real barn burner." I almost cried... This was the first time any space shuttle had flown under its own power. It was the first time solid fuel boosters had ever been tried with pilots on the other end.
During the landing at Edwards two days later, one of the chase pilots flying formation with Columbia said, "Don't bounce it grandpa." Young had grandchildren... I almost cried.
They are old men now... Old Gods of Thunder forgotten by most but remembered by the few.
OK, I feel better... Emergency brainwash post after reading today's newspaper.
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