'The Space Shuttle at Work'

This NASA document from 1979 is a wild look at how the space shuttle was pitched: An unlikely looking flying machine stands on its tail above the watery, thicketed Florida sandscape. The time is the mid-1980s, and the Space Shuttle preparing for launch is one of a fleet of four that now plies routinely, about one round trip a week, between the United States and Earth orbit. On average, the shuttle would fly once every three months or so, if you count the five years where it grounded for accident investigations after the Challenger and Columbia disasters in 1986 and 2003. From that opening paragraph on, this document represents a vision that was never close to being realized. To be sure, the space shuttle’s legacy includes great achievements, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station, but it could never live up to how it was talked about in the 1970s. It’s a heartbreaking look at a future never realized.