Bold They Rise: The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986

13. To Touch the Face of God

13. To Touch the Face of God And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high untrespassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. —“High Flight,” Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee, No. 412 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, died 11 December 1941 sts-51l Crew: Commander Dick Scobee, Pilot Michael Smith, Mission Specialists Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, and Ron McNair; Payload Specialists Christa McAuliffe and Gregory Jarvis Orbiter: Challenger Launched: 28 January 1986 Landed: N/A Mission: Deployment of tdrs, astronomy research, Teacher in Space Astronaut Dick Covey was the ascent CapCom for the 51l mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. “There were two CapComs, the weather guy and the prime guy, and so it had been planned for some time that I’d be in the prime seat for [51l] and be the guy talking to them. . . . As the ascent CapCom you work so much with the crew that you have a lot of [connection]. In the training periods and stuff, not only do you sit over in the control center while they’re doing ascents and talk to them, but you also go and work with them on other things.” Covey remembered getting together with the crew while the astronauts were in quarantine at jsc, before they flew down to Florida, to go over the mission one more time and work through any questions. “We got to go over and spend an hour or two in the crew quarters with them. I spent most of my time with Mike Smith and Ellison Onizuka, who was my longtime friend from test pilot school. They were excited, and they were raunchy , as you would expect, and we had a lot of fun and a lot of good laughs. It was neat to go do that. So that was the last time that I got to physically go and sit with the crew and talk about the mission and the ascent and what to expect there.” On launch day the flight control team reported much earlier than the crew, monitoring the weather and getting ready for communication checks with the astronauts once they were strapped in. Covey said that he was excited to be working with Flight Director Jay Greene, whom he had worked with before , and that everything had seemed normal from his perspective leading into the launch. “From the control center standpoint,” Covey said, “I don’t remember anything that was unusual or extraordinary that we were working or talking about. It wasn’t something where we knew that someone was making a decision and how they were making that decision. We just flat didn’t have that insight. Didn’t know what was going on. Did not. It was pretty much just everything’s like a sim as we’re sitting there getting ready to go.” 31. Crew members of mission sts-51l stand in the White Room at Launchpad 39b. Left to right: Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judy Resnik, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, and Ellison Onizuka. Courtesy nasa. 288 | to touch the face of god Covey recalled that televisions had only recently been installed in the Mission Control Center and that the controllers weren’t entirely sure what they were supposed to make of them yet. “The idea [had been] you shouldn’t be looking at pictures; You should be looking at your data,” he said. “So that’s how we trained. Since the last time I’d been in the control center, they’d started putting [televisions in]. . . . I’d sat as the weather guy, and once the launch happens, I kind of look at the data, but I look over there at the tv.” Astronaut Fred Gregory was the weather CapCom for the 51l launch and recalled that nothing had seemed unusual leading up to the launch. Up to liftoff, everything was normal. We had normal communication with the crew.We knew it was a little chilly, a little cold down there, but the ice team had gone out and surveyed and had not discovered anything that would have been a hazard to the vehicle. Liftoff was normal. . . . Behind the flight director was a monitor, and so I was watching the displays, but also every now and then look over and look at Jay Greene and then glance at the monitor. And I saw what appeared to be the solid rocket booster motor’s...