On April 14th, 1981, NASA’s Space Shuttle program completed its first orbital spaceflight — marking the first American manned spaceflight in five years.
Exactly 20 years earlier, on April 12th, 1961, the Soviet Union launched the first human into space, with the now-legendary cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard.
The complexity behind the glory
The Space Shuttle Columbia carried Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) for both astronauts, John Young and Robert Crippen, in case of an emergency spacewalk. As this was Columbia’s maiden voyage, nothing about the mission was routine. To illustrate how ambitious the project was — the shuttle featured three times as many switches and displays as the Apollo spacecraft. The crew also had to manage 22 manuals weighing over 30 kg, with some procedures containing as many as 255 steps.
A shared spirit of exploration
Both the Vostok and Shuttle programs were groundbreaking achievements, built on endeavor, perseverance, and relentless hard work — values we admire deeply at 1Optic. Just like those space pioneers, we’re exploring new technologies and innovative ways to improve data availability and integrity for our customers.
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