The Grand Finale: All 135 Space Shuttle Launches in One Video

When NASA launched its last space shut­tle a year ago, McLean Fahne­stock paid trib­ute to the 30-year old shut­tle pro­gram by putting footage from every launch into one video. 135-in‑1.  It makes for an arrest­ing sequence. But, unfor­tu­nate­ly, the 1986 Chal­lenger explo­sion ends up over­whelm­ing the sto­ry. One Vimeo com­menter, Jere­my Rick­etts, got it right when he said:

I don’t know about the rest being a dec­o­ra­tive bor­der to Chal­lenger. In my eyes it high­light­ed what an insane­ly amaz­ing accom­plish­ment it was that out of all these launch­es, only two have ever result­ed in fail­ure of that type. This is the first reli­able, reusable vehi­cle to ever bring humans to space. Giv­en the vio­lence of the launch­es and sheer absur­di­ty of strap­ping a winged vehi­cle to the site of a rock­et, it high­lights (in my view) what an amaz­ing feat it was, even in light of [the] Chal­lenger.

Any­way, while we’re on the sub­ject, don’t miss some of our favorite space shut­tle videos from times past — like Endeavour’s Launch Viewed from Boost­er Cam­eras, William Shat­ner’s Nar­ra­tion of a Film Doc­u­ment­ing the His­to­ry of the Space Shut­tle, and The Best of NASA Space Shut­tle Videos from 1981 to 2010.

Enjoy the rest of the week­end.

via Kot­tke