On the morning of 4 July 1982, a fast-moving black-and-white speck appeared on the horizon at Edwards Air Power Base, Calif., bringing a pair of U.S. area explorers again to Earth after every week in orbit. Minutes later, at 9:09 a.m. PDT, shuttle Columbia and her crew—Commander Ken Mattingly and Pilot Hank Hartsfield—alighted on concrete Runway 22, turning into the primary (and thus far solely) American human mission to land on Independence Day, this quintessentially U.S. vacation of remembrance.
Many different People would comply with in Mattingly and Hartsfield’s footsteps, aboard 5 extra missions—together with the primary shuttle-Mir docking flight in 1995—and extra have since noticed the day’s festivities from the lofty perch afforded by Mir and the Worldwide Area Station (ISS). Just one U.S. human mission has ever launched on 4 July and just one has ever landed on 4 July, however the vacation has been marked by a succession of People from a location far greater than even the members of the Second Continental Congress may presumably have imagined after they drafted the language of separation of the 13 Colonies means again in 1776.
The primary Independence Day spent in orbit by U.S. astronauts started in a relatively comical trend. On 4 July 1982, Mattingly and Hartsfield had been within the technique of packing away their analysis {hardware} after seven days in orbit aboard Columbia. STS-4 had been a extremely profitable mission, the final of 4 Orbital Flight Checks (OFTs) of the shuttle. Among the many analysis carried out by Mattingly and Hartsfield had been the primary categorized payload, flown on behalf of the Division of Protection.
“On one experiment, that they had a categorized guidelines [and] as a result of we didn’t have a safe comm hyperlink, we had the guidelines divided up in sections that simply had letter-names, like Bravo-Charlie, Tab-Charlie, Tab-Bravo, that they might name out,” recalled Hartsfield. Every time the astronauts spoke to U.S. Air Power controllers on the Satellite tv for pc Management Facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., they might be advised, for instance, to “Do Tab-Charlie”.
“We had a locker that we saved all of the categorized materials,” stated Hartsfield, “and it was padlocked, so as soon as we obtained on orbit, we unlocked it and did what we needed to do.” As the tip of the mission neared, Hartsfield packed the rest of the categorized supplies and secured the locker. He advised Mattingly. “I obtained all of the categorized stuff put away. It’s all locked up.”
“Nice!” replied Mattingly.
Half an hour later, Mission Management advised them that the navy employees at Sunnyvale wished to speak to them. The Air Power controller requested them to “do Tab-November”.
The 2 astronauts checked out one another. What the hell was Tab-November?
Neither man may bear in mind. The secretive nature of the navy instruction and the dearth of a safe communications hyperlink additionally meant they may not ask over the radio.
The one choice was to reopen the categorized locker and dig via all of the supplies to seek out the guidelines. Ultimately, after a lot looking out, Hartsfield lastly discovered the glossary entry for Tab-November.
It learn: “Put every little thing away and safe it.”
Mattingly and Hartsfield’s arrival within the California desert was being watched carefully by President Ronald Reagan and First Girl Nancy Reagan. And the crew had been briefed by NASA Administrator James Beggs and requested to think about some memorable phrases.
“We knew that they had hyped-up the STS-4 mission, in order that they wished to ensure we landed on the Fourth of July,” Mattingly recalled. “It was in no unsure phrases that we had been going to land on the Fourth of July, it doesn’t matter what day we took off.
“Even when it was the fifth, we had been going to land on the fourth,” he joked. “That meant, for those who didn’t do any of your take a look at mission, that’s okay, so long as you land on the fourth, as a result of the president goes to be there. We thought that was kinda attention-grabbing!”
Happily, Columbia’s touchdown—the primary on Edwards’ concrete Runway 22—occurred exactly on schedule. The shuttle alighted on the runway and Mattingly utilized the brakes for 20 seconds to return to a easy halt.
Now got here his huge problem: How to welcome the Reagans contained in the orbiter. He and Hartsfield thought-about placing up a discover, worded to the impact of Welcome to Columbia: Thirty minutes in the past, this was in area.
However issues didn’t go effectively. Proper after wheelstop, Mattingly turned to Hartsfield.
“I’m not going to have someone come up right here and pull me outta this chair,” he stated. “I’m going to offer each ounce of energy I’ve obtained and stand up alone.”
Earlier crews had returned to Earth, some feeling high-quality, others nauseous, and nonetheless extra wanted a gurney to hold them off the spacecraft for medical consideration. That will not—and couldn’t—occur with the president in attendance.
Mentally and bodily prepared to fulfill his commander-in-chief, Mattingly pushed himself upward out of his seat to disembark…and promptly thumped his head on the overhead instrument panel. “Now that,” quipped Hartsfield, “is very swish!”
The 2 returning heroes composed themselves, Mattingly wiping away just a few spots of blood. Within the minutes earlier than the shuttle’s hatch opened, they reacquainted themselves with their “Earth-legs”, then descended the steps to fulfill the Reagans.
Hartsfield, well-known for his cruel humorousness, was on prime kind that day. “In the event you do it such as you did gettin’ out of your chair, you’ll go down the steps and also you’re going to fall down, so it’s good to have one thing to say,” he advised Mattingly.
“Why don’t you simply lookup on the president and say ‘Mr. President, these are lovely footwear’? Assume you will get that proper?”
Mattingly glared at him.
Twenty-four years later, on 4 July 2006, Discovery inadvertently grew to become the one U.S. human area mission to launch on Independence Day. Aboard the shuttle that day, STS-121 Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Mark Kelly and Mission Specialists Mike Fossum, Lisa Nowak, Stephanie Wilson and Piers Sellers had been flying the second return-to-flight take a look at mission to the ISS, following February 2003’s tragic lack of Columbia.
They had been additionally ferrying German astronaut Thomas Reiter uphill for the European Area Company’s (ESA) first long-duration keep on the station. Strolling out of their crew quarters that morning, Lindsey’s crew waved American flags, apart from Reiter who fluttered a German tricolor. “I don’t know if it was the German Fourth of July or not,” Lindsey quipped on the post-flight press convention.
With out additional ado, they speared right into a crystal-clear Florida sky at 2:55 p.m. EDT. “And liftoff of the Area Shuttle Discovery,” gushed the launch announcer, “returning to the area station, paving the way in which for future missions past.”
These missions will undoubtedly see a future American crew launch or land on Independence Day, though as of now the feats of Mattingly and Hartsfield in 1982 and Lindsey et. al. in 2006 haven’t been repeated. That stated, 4 different shuttle crews had been in area over the vacation, together with Columbia’s STS-50 in 1992 and STS-78 in 1996, each of which set data for the longest shuttle flight, in addition to STS-71 in 1995, the primary docking mission to Russia’s Mir area station, and STS-94 in 1997.
Three different U.S. astronauts—Norm Thagard, Shannon Lucid and Mike Foale—celebrated aboard Mir throughout their lengthy increments in 1995, 1996 and 1997. And since 2001, there was a U.S. presence on the ISS for every Independence Day. That yr, Jim Voss and Susan Helms grew to become the primary People to have fun the Fourth of July from the ISS.
And in 2010, for the primary time, three U.S. astronauts—Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, Doug Wheelock and Shannon Walker—noticed the vacation from the sprawling orbital advanced. Later Independence Day ISS occupants included Chris Cassidy, who ran a “4 on the Fourth” highway race on the area station’s treadmill in 2013, while his crewmate Karen Nyberg introduced cookies she had iced within the colours of the U.S. flag.
This yr, with Expedition 71’s Matt Dominick, Mike Barratt, Jeanette Epps and Tracy Dyson, plus Starliner Crew Flight Check (CFT) astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, aboard the ISS for the vacation, extra People have been in area on Independence Day than at every other time since STS-121 in July 2006. And with human-carrying Artemis missions on the horizon, it can’t be too many extra years earlier than America’s day of reflection is well known from the floor of the Moon and ultimately Mars.
