WEBVTT - Judy Resnick in Space: Full Throttle Up 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey everyone, We've put together a survey for listeners of 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.760 Medal of Honor and we want to hear from you. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.240 Tell us what you love about the show, what we 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.760 can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.840 committed to making this show even better and you can 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.960 help to take the survey. Visit bit dot lee slash 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:27.280 MH survey. That's bit dot l y slash MH survey. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:41.479 The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin. 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:50.640 It was Tuesday, June twenty sixth, nineteen eighty four, on 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.760 a launchpad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Space Shuttle Discovery 0:00:54.840 --> 0:01:00.520 was preparing to take its first voyage into orbit. There 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.839 were six astronauts on board, harnessed into their seats, lying 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:09.959 on their backs, facing up towards the Cosmos. The hatch 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.480 to the crew compartment closed. The astronauts felt a pop 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:21.319 in their ears as the cabin pressurized, and then they waited, nervous, 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:28.759 their chit chat and jokes fading into silence. Soon the 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:33.080 only sound was the woosh of the cabin fan. At 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.080 t minus two minutes, the astronauts closed the visors on 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:42.760 their helmets. Good luck everybody, their mission commander said, this 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:48.520 is it. Do it like we've trained eyes on the instruments. 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:55.320 At T minus thirty one seconds, Discoveries computers assumed control. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.040 Of the countdown, so they have a quince start. 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:04.680 The astronaut hearts were racing. They focused their whole beings 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.239 on what was about to happen, on everything they had 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.239 trained for years to do. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:13.639 We have a main engine start. 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:20.040 At T minus ten seconds, six high pressure turbo pumps 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:25.280 began to work, sending thousands of pounds of propellant to 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.760 the shuttle's three main engines. At T minus six seconds, 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:36.280 the cockpit started to shake and rattle violently. The first 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:43.360 engine headlet. This was it. Liftoff was about to begin, 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:50.560 and then suddenly the vibrations stopped. The cockpit was as 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:56.440 silent and eerie as a tomb. The crew knew instantly 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:02.320 that something was very, very wrong. They were only seconds 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:07.359 away from lighting the solid rocket boosters, two giant canisters 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:11.680 of fuel that would propel the shuttle into orbit. If 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:14.960 they ignited now while the shuttle was still on the 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:19.640 launch pad, they would generate more than six million pounds 0:03:19.639 --> 0:03:24.840 of thrust. It would rip the shuttle apart. Everyone on 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:32.720 board would be dead instantly. The astronauts weren't sure exactly 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.440 what was happening, but they knew they were sitting on 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:45.680 a bomb that might be about to go off. I'm JR. Martinez, 0:03:46.080 --> 0:03:50.480 and this is Metal of Honor Stories of Courage. In 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.520 this episode, you'll meet the recipient of a different kind 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:59.160 of metal, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor. It was 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:03.760 authorized by Congress in nineteen sixty nine and since then 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:08.360 has only been awarded to thirty astronauts. It is given 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.840 to those men and women who distinguish themselves through quote 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:17.359 exceptionally meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the 0:04:17.480 --> 0:04:21.880 nation and mankind. And just like the Medal of Honor, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:24.640 it has to be approved by the President of the 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:30.320 United States. The Space Medal of Honor doesn't award heroism 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.200 in battle. It rewards the heroism you need if you're 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:38.159 going to push to the farthest edges of our frontier. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:43.640 That heroism tells us every bit as much about the 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:47.760 nature of courage and sacrifice as the classic Medal of 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:53.159 Honor does. This story is about Judith Resnik, one of 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.920 the astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on that summer 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:02.520 morning in nineteen eighty four. Judy was a brilliant engineer 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.400 who joined NASA along with five other women in the 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.000 late seventies and went through years of grueling training to 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.839 qualify to be on that shuttle. She was the second 0:05:14.920 --> 0:05:19.520 American woman in space after Sally Ryde, and she understood 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:25.200 deep in her bones how risky her assignment was, but 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:30.960 she did it anyway. She persisted through that danger, not 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.040 because she wanted to be a woman in space as 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:38.800 some kind of token or ceiling breaker. She did it 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.920 because she had a job to do, a job she 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:47.640 was doing for her country, for all of us. She 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.280 would do that job until the morning she died at 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:56.279 the age of thirty six, free falling through the clear 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:14.200 blue winter sky. By the time Judy Resnik decided to 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:17.480 become an astronaut, she had been the only woman in 0:06:17.520 --> 0:06:21.520 the room literally dozens of times. That's what you got 0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:24.600 from being a female math, genius an engineer in the 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:29.640 late nineteen sixties and seventies. She was born in Akron, Ohio, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.720 in nineteen forty nine. Her parents were first generation Jewish Americans. 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:39.080 Judy was exceptional from the start. She trained to be 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:43.040 a concert pianist, and she was amazing at it. She 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.240 spoke French. She was the only girl in the math 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.600 club in high school. She graduated first in her class, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.680 and she was accepted early to the famous Juilliard School 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:59.159 of Music. But then Judy scored an eight hundred on 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:03.719 the math Porsche of her college SATs, the only female 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.200 high school student in the country that year to achieve 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:11.360 a perfect score. So she switched gears and enrolled at 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:16.240 Carnegie Mellon University to study electrical engineering. There were barely 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:19.360 any other women in the department, but she was getting 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:24.360 used to that. Judy graduated first in her class and 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:29.160 promptly started adding to her expertise designing radar control and 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:34.000 rocketree circuits at RCA, working in biomedical engineering at the 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:38.960 National Institutes of Health, getting her PhD in electrical engineering 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:45.400 with honors. But while success came easily, finding something to 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:50.640 spark her interest was harder. That all changed in nineteen 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:56.080 seventy seven, when NASA finally opened its applications to women. 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:03.080 Judy was twenty seven. NASA's decision was a long time coming. 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:08.440 It was American men who first walked in space and 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.400 then set the first human footprints on a planet other 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:16.040 than Earth, and subsequent flights have remained a sort of 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:18.800 free floating bachelor party. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.720 This is from a documentary made in nineteen eighty three. 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.280 I can't tell if it's meant to be funny or what. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:31.160 From nineteen sixty until nineteen seventy seven, for reasons that 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.040 will forever remain unclear, NASA was unable to find a 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.600 single qualified woman candidate. 0:08:38.280 --> 0:08:42.080 Or as one woman put it, they trained a Tim 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:45.880 pan Z to go to space before they trained a 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:53.000 single female astronaut. Anyways, in the late nineteen seventies, NASA 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:57.400 had developed this space Shuttle. Unlike the old spacecraft, it 0:08:57.400 --> 0:09:01.880 would be reusable, able to take trips a year, which 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:07.160 meant NASA would need more astronauts, and so finally women 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:11.760 were allowed in the door. Judy wasn't really that interested 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.480 in space until she happened to see the NASA recruitment 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.080 noticed on some bulletin board. This is Judy. 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.520 I decided to apply to be an astronaut when I 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:26.480 was a graduate student finishing up my research work. It 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:28.320 was not something that I had planned to do for 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.480 my whole life. It was a case of being in 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.679 the right place at the right time. NASA was advertising 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:35.920 for astronauts at the time that I was looking for 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:36.480 a job. 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:42.120 If she made it sound easy, it wasn't. More than 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:47.840 eight thousand people applied to become astronauts that year. Of those, 0:09:48.360 --> 0:09:53.560 a little over a thousand were women. Judy worked hard 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:56.640 to stand out from the crowd, reaching out to astronaut 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:00.800 John Glenn an Apollo eleven pilot Michael and to learn 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.760 more about the space program. She got a pilot's license, 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.040 and while she waited to hear from NASA, she moved 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.720 to California and took a job with Xerox. Soon enough, 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:15.160 she was one of two hundred finalists invited to the 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:20.040 Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of those two hundred, only 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:24.800 twenty one were women. Judy submitted to a week of 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:31.160 interviews to physical test and mental ones. NASA recruiters needed 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:35.160 to know if these potential astronauts would respond badly to stress. 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:41.480 In January of nineteen seventy eight, Judy got the news 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:47.320 she would be one of six women accepted into the program. 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.000 At the press conference, she stepped onto the stage and 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:55.600 smoothed her skirt. She had straightened her dark, curly hair 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.920 and wore a nervous smile on her face. 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:07.560 Mission Specialist. Her residence is Redondo Beach, California. Her present 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:12.040 position is engineering staff product development with the Xerox Corporation. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:13.160 El Segunde. 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:18.320 Judy moved to Houston with the rest of the thirty 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.800 five newly minted astronauts. She would train as a mission specialist. 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:29.360 The mission specialist does things associated with the experiments on 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:32.760 board or deploying the satellites, while the pilots do most 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.000 of the flying of the orbiter. 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.240 While she might not be flying the shuttle, the training 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:43.720 was still brutal and it would last for years. More 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.320 than any other of the six women, Judy was determined 0:11:47.360 --> 0:11:50.800 to be seen as one of the boys. As she 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.920 once told her father quote that I don't want to 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:56.920 be a Jewish astronaut. I don't want to be a 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:04.000 Jewish woman astronaut. US want to be an astronaut period. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.920 I just wanted to go in space and do my job. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.480 A few years into her training, Tom Broker asked her 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:18.040 what it was like to break into that old boys club. 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.480 Once you got into the program, wasn't there a little 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.880 bit of resentment or a little bit of male chauvinism 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:24.120 that was demonstrated to that's. 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:26.280 A very male kind of fighter pilot world as you 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:26.880 were in Rick. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:27.760 Not at all. 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.800 As a matter of fact, I think everybody leaned over 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.880 backwards to make sure that we were treated as equal 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:34.240 right from the beginning. 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:39.800 This, of course, was not entirely true. Mike mullane was 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:43.560 also a mission specialist in Judy's class of astronauts, and 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:48.559 he remembers the men oggling her, teasing her with dirty jokes. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.560 It sounds like training with a bunch of teenagers. One 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.920 time the guys put a live grass snake in her back. 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:58.920 They waited in the other room to hear her open 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:03.760 her purse, and which she did. I would have but 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:09.120 they respected her brilliance and reliability. Mulane has served as 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:12.360 an Air Force colonel before he joined NASA. He was 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.640 pretty tough. He had flown one hundred and thirty four 0:13:15.720 --> 0:13:20.920 combat missions in Vietnam, and he remembers Judy this way quote. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.160 I'd watched her fly formation from the backseat of T 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:28.679 thirty eight's and lead instrument approaches in bad weather and 0:13:28.840 --> 0:13:32.160 do it as well as me. I'd washed a repel 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:34.160 off the side of the orbiter mock up in our 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.559 emergency training, parascel into the water in our survival training, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.960 worked twenty feet underwater in a three hundred pounds spacesuit 0:13:44.840 --> 0:13:51.080 in simulation. After simulation, she had instantly and correctly reacted 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:55.760 to countless emergencies. The other astronauts felt that they could 0:13:55.800 --> 0:14:00.240 trust Judy with their lives. Plus, she was a really 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:04.120 good time. Here's Rhea Seddon, who is one of the 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:06.160 first female astronauts. 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:12.959 She was really really bright, obviously very beautiful person, flirtatious, funny. 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.600 You know, if she was just a live wire, you know, 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.440 we would do the Happy Hours or we'd go on 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:21.760 these NASA trips, and Judy was just a star attraction. 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:24.520 She was just having a great time and was obviously 0:14:24.560 --> 0:14:25.600 friends with everybody. 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.840 NASA kept sending her out to do press, which Judy hated. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.040 Journalists would ask her personal questions, questions they would never 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:41.240 ask a male astronaut like this Jim from tom Brookaw. 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.640 Are there discussions on Houston about what happens. 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.080 When men and women go into space for the first 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.320 time together? After all, if you're up there. 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:50.640 In some kind of a prolonged space mission. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.680 And there may be even relationships that will develop between 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:53.200 men and women. 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.000 Well, I think from our point of view, since we're 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.200 so used to working together professionally, that we look at 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:02.200 each other as profession colleagues on the ground, in orbit 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.880 and whatever, and we view it that way. Period. 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:06.600 You think the time will come when there will be 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.560 a romance in the outer space, then oh gee, I 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:09.440 really couldn't tell. 0:15:09.320 --> 0:15:16.600 You that, Tom, what are you doing? Understandably, Judy started 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:20.480 to avoid the press. She sometimes would hide from reporters, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:26.680 using her fellow astronauts as human shields. And then at 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.560 the start of nineteen eighty two, it became clear that 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.640 NASA was going to assign a woman to a shuttle crew. 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:40.760 Whoever it was would become the first American woman in space. 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:46.440 The female astronauts were more than ready. Judy had a 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:51.160 bright pink bumper sticker made that read a Woman's place 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.320 is in the cockpit. It looked like it was going 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.680 to come down to either her or Sally Ride. Ride 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:02.840 was a brilliant physicist and PhD who had married a 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:08.680 fellow astronaut. Sally was comfortable with the press, calm and 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.880 well spoken on TV. And then there was Judy, equally 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:18.840 brilliant but single, who cursed like a sailor, went out 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:23.600 dancing in nightclubs, and rolled her eyes whenever her gender 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:29.720 became part of the conversation. The decision, unfortunately, was probably 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:34.800 pretty clear. In April of nineteen eighty two, NASA announced 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.960 that Sally Ride would be the first American woman astronaut 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.760 in space. It would be two long years before Judy 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.560 would have her first brush with space. That day, when 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:53.560 Discovery's engines shut down on the launchpad and Judy realized 0:16:54.200 --> 0:17:14.400 she might be about to die. In nineteen eighty four, 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:19.399 Judy Resnek was finally scheduled for emission to space. It 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:23.879 would be Discovery's maiden voyage, although, as Judy joked with 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.720 the other five astronauts, who were all men, quote, there 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:33.119 are no maidens on this voyage. Judy, as an expert engineer, 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.119 specialized in the operation of the mechanical arm, which was 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:41.600 controlled from within the cockpit but located outside the orbiter. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:45.760 It was used to lift solar panels and position satellites. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.840 Here's Judy describing what the team would be doing with 0:17:49.880 --> 0:17:51.640 the arm during a TV interview. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:57.080 The remote Manipulator Arm will be used to take large satellites, 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.560 for example, out of the cargo bay and put them 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:02.200 into orb but the orbiter will act much like a bus, 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.399 and the satellite will be getting off at it's bus stop, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.359 so to speak. We get to the right place in 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.320 the right time, and we'll pick it up with the arm, 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.480 and we'll put it where we want to let go, 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.280 and then back the orbiter away and leave it there. 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:20.320 Operating the arm took incredible skill. Here's Tom Brokaw again 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.080 talking about Judy on a news broadcast. 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.000 Despite her protestations that she couldn't do things better than 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.040 some of the men, all and men told me that 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:29.800 when she operated that big arm at the back of 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.400 the payload, she had a great touch, that she had 0:18:32.440 --> 0:18:33.400 real dexterity. 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:39.600 Discovery was set to launch in June. A few days 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.639 before lift off, Judy and a friend discussed who would 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.520 inherit her things if the mission went wrong and she 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:51.239 didn't return. Her friend asked if she was ready for 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.000 the risk, and Judy replied, quote, oh yeah, I know 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.879 what's involved, but it was about to become very real 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:03.040 for her. The astronauts boarded the Shuttle in the early 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.760 morning of June twenty fifth, but there was a problem 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.640 with the backup flight system computer. The liftoff was scrubbed 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:16.240 and rescheduled for the following day, that was June twenty sixth. 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.720 Same drew an early morning wake up entry through the hatch, 0:19:22.200 --> 0:19:28.119 the astronaut's ears popping as the cabin was depressurized. Judy's father, brother, 0:19:28.200 --> 0:19:31.960 and mother were watching from the Lodge Control Center, located 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:35.640 three miles from the launch site, at a safe distance 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:43.879 from any potential explosion. Then came countdown fifteen. The propellant 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:48.480 flowed to the solid rocket boosters, that pair of giant 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.520 rockets connected to either side of the orbiter, which provided 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.320 eighty five percent of the Space Shuttle's thrust at liftoff, 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:00.600 and for the first two minutes of a cent we 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:09.400 have main engines start and then the terrifying silence. Everyone 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.080 on board the shuttle was worried that the solid rocket 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.879 boosters would ignite when they were still on the ground, 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:21.720 tearing the shuttle apart. And then they heard crackling over 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:27.760 the intercom. There's a small fire on the launchpad. Here's 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.000 Mike Mullane, who was on that flight with Judy. 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.439 And I'll never forget thinking there's no such thing as 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:36.520 a small fire when you're sitting on four million pounds 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:41.560 of repellent. That was a real terror. Hear the word fire. 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:43.919 That's the scaredest I think I've probably ever been in 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:45.920 my life, sitting out there wondering what the heck's going 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:47.560 on with that fire on the launch pad. 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:53.560 In the grandstands, spectators had seen a bright flash as 0:20:53.600 --> 0:20:58.080 the engines ignited. Some were convinced that they had seen 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:03.119 an explosion. Judy's mother bent her head and rested it 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:08.000 in her hands. It looked like she was praying. Water 0:21:08.080 --> 0:21:12.119 began to spray against the shuttle windows. The crew unstrapped 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:14.959 from their seats and debated opening the hatch to make 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.960 an emergency escape. They didn't know that the fire outside 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:25.400 the shuttle was hydrogen, and hydrogen fires are invisible. They 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:30.840 might have unknowingly exited the hatch directly into the flames. 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:37.200 Fortunately they decided to wait. It was more than forty 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.720 minutes before the astronauts finally got out, but they survived. 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.320 At the press conference afterwards, they did what they had 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.159 been trained to do. They lied, and they said that 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:53.719 they hadn't been afraid at all. Judy said, quote, I 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.320 was disappointed, but I was relieved that the safety systems 0:21:57.440 --> 0:22:00.560 do work. It was unfortunate that we had to check 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:04.240 them out, but it built confidence in the whole system. 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.040 In truth, the astronauts hadn't just been terrified of the 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:13.920 rockets blowing them apart or of the fire. Lift off 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:18.880 itself was dangerous, and the Shuttle wasn't designed with any 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.040 way for the crew to escape once it was airborne. 0:22:22.640 --> 0:22:25.720 Here's Mike Mulane talking about the Shuttle on a Performance 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:30.639 Initiative podcast. He makes it so clear why the Shuttle 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:35.239 launch was terrifying for everyone on board. We didn't have 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.400 any way of bailing out of a shuttle. Of course, 0:22:37.440 --> 0:22:38.640 you're not gonna be able to bail out. 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:40.760 Of it in space or anything, but in the atmosphere, 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:43.200 if you had an escape system, you know, some type 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:45.480 of injection seats or pots or something, you might be 0:22:45.480 --> 0:22:47.520 able to survive. But Shuttle didn't have any of that. 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.800 So fear is very very high on Shuttle launch. 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:59.840 No way to escape, just let that sink in. Maybe 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.240 had intellectually known the risk of what she was doing, 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:08.399 but now I'm sure she really felt it. And yet 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.480 on August thirtieth, nineteen eighty four, when NASA made its 0:23:13.680 --> 0:23:18.959 fourth attempt to launch Discovery. She was there and this 0:23:19.119 --> 0:23:23.160 time lift off went exactly as planned. 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:28.840 Three two when wed that's our reignition, and we had 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:32.480 lifted off, lifted off, and n D the first flight 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:34.840 and labor in the Discovery and the tuttle had cleared 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:35.320 the power. 0:23:37.240 --> 0:23:42.159 Judy Resnik became the second American woman in space. She 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:47.120 released satellites into orbit and conducted experiments on a giant 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:48.679 folding solar panel. 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:52.200 This is the largest structure ever deployed in space. All 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:54.240 in all, it was a good flight test for large 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:57.879 space structures with potential future use in either space based 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:00.439 construction or in space station operations. 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:05.679 Zero gravity turned Judy's curly hair into a cloud. She 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:10.720 had on gold rimmed aviator sunglasses and those short shorts 0:24:10.840 --> 0:24:17.280 everyone wore in the eighties. She looked well glamorous. Back 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:20.639 on Earth, people weren't happy about that, but Judy was 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:26.640 just being herself as usual. While Discovery was circling our 0:24:26.720 --> 0:24:31.400 planet at five miles per second, the crew filmed themselves, 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:34.840 eating and sleeping, even running on a treadmill. 0:24:35.520 --> 0:24:38.479 Exercise was part of our daily routine on orbit, just 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:40.760 like it is back here on Earth. Getting set up 0:24:40.800 --> 0:24:42.920 on the treadmill takes a little bit longer on orbit, 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:44.800 but it feels just as good to quit. 0:24:47.600 --> 0:24:50.240 But there was one episode that did it make the 0:24:50.320 --> 0:24:53.960 highlight real. The crew had been sent up with an 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:57.879 Imax camera. While it was filming, the camera caught a 0:24:58.040 --> 0:25:02.439 lock of Judy's hair and so into the mechanics. Judy 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:06.399 was upset, but not because the other astronauts had to 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:08.520 cut off a chunk of her hair to set her free. 0:25:09.359 --> 0:25:12.680 Let me tell you, the press had the women under 0:25:12.720 --> 0:25:16.919 a microscope and were looking for the slightest indication that 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:20.439 a woman was different than a man, and as a result, 0:25:20.480 --> 0:25:25.199 the women were paranoid about displaying anything anything that would 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.920 remotely be construed as, Oh, you're different than a man. 0:25:32.040 --> 0:25:35.919 Mike Mulane remembers that when Judy's hair jammed up the camera, 0:25:36.480 --> 0:25:40.600 the commander, Hank Hartsfield said he would call down to 0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:43.439 mission control and tell them they were going to have 0:25:43.600 --> 0:25:45.640 problems filming for the day. 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:48.760 And Judy looked at him and I don't remember her 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:51.040 exact words, but basically it was, you know, I'm going 0:25:51.119 --> 0:25:53.239 to cut your heart out if you so much as 0:25:53.280 --> 0:25:55.560 say a word over the air. About my hair getting 0:25:55.560 --> 0:25:57.560 caught in this thing. To us it was baffling, like 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:00.200 why it's the big deal, But it quickly bec came 0:26:00.200 --> 0:26:03.120 apparent to us. What her concern was is that if 0:26:03.160 --> 0:26:06.560 that was blabbed to the whole world, it would be 0:26:06.640 --> 0:26:08.800 the thing. It wouldn't matter how well Judy did on 0:26:08.840 --> 0:26:11.119 the mission, all the things she did, she would be 0:26:11.160 --> 0:26:14.320 remembered as the woman who had her hair that jeopardized 0:26:14.320 --> 0:26:16.879 the imaxian that you know, women are different than me 0:26:16.920 --> 0:26:18.840 and their hair as long, you know that type of thing, 0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:20.240 that's what the press would pick up on. 0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:24.520 She knew it. They fixed the camera and after six 0:26:24.680 --> 0:26:31.159 days they returned home. Judy was thrilled. Surely now she 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:35.520 would be seen as an astronaut, not a woman astronaut. 0:26:36.800 --> 0:26:40.480 But very soon the whole world would know her name 0:26:41.160 --> 0:27:01.359 for a different reason. In nineteen eighty one, Judy got 0:27:01.440 --> 0:27:03.959 the news that she had been hoping for. She was 0:27:04.000 --> 0:27:07.919 scheduled for a second mission to space. It wasn't just 0:27:07.960 --> 0:27:11.919 because she had shown again and again how brilliant and 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:17.240 professional she was. It was also because, to boosts public excitement, 0:27:17.760 --> 0:27:21.199 NASA had decided to invite a civilian to join the mission. 0:27:22.200 --> 0:27:26.639 Her name was Krista mccauliffe, a teacher from New Hampshire, 0:27:27.400 --> 0:27:30.399 and they wanted a seasoned female astronaut to be on 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:33.760 the flight with her. They would be on the Space 0:27:33.800 --> 0:27:40.080 Shuttle called Challenger. Judy, like most of the astronauts in 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:44.040 the Shuttle program, was initially skeptical about sending a civilian 0:27:44.080 --> 0:27:49.240 into orbit, but she soon realized how alone and overwhelmed 0:27:49.400 --> 0:27:53.040 mccaulloff felt, so she set up a series of coffee 0:27:53.080 --> 0:27:57.600 dates and taught mccauliff about celestial mechanics and how the 0:27:57.720 --> 0:28:01.760 combustion of the Shuttle's engines worked. She told her quote, 0:28:02.280 --> 0:28:06.000 it's not as hard as they make it sound. Judy 0:28:06.200 --> 0:28:09.320 was the only astronaut picked for the Challenger mission who 0:28:09.359 --> 0:28:13.800 had experienced that brush with death on Discovery, and yet 0:28:14.240 --> 0:28:17.440 she had total confidence in the Shuttle and in the program. 0:28:18.160 --> 0:28:20.879 Here's a clip of her from an interview around that time. 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:23.639 Are you a bit scared? 0:28:23.920 --> 0:28:25.399