Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle […]

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle flight, STS-1, which NASA called “the boldest test flight in history.”

It was the only time humans piloted the very first flight of a new launch vehicle.
It was the first time Americans launched with solid-fuel rockets.
It was the first launch with no abort capability during the full burn of those solid rockets.

Astronauts Young and Crippen were incredibly brave and helped design the spacecraft controls, including 2,214 switches and displays in the cockpit — about three times as many on the Apollo command module.

Here are some of my STS artifacts and memories. To boldly go…