The landing of the first space shuttle mission on April 14, 1981 as broadcast live by ABC news on KABC-TV Los Angeles, California. This was digitized from an original beta tape copy recorded off-air on April 16, 1981, live. In 1981, video broadcasts were rarely recorded in 1981. Video tape recorders were commercially available but few households had recording machines in early 1981. This particular tape was recorded on a Sony Betamax SL-7200 which was owned by my uncle and aunt. The video was stored over the pats 30 years and occasionally played. Therefore, there is some loss to the signal intensity due to erosion of the tape over the past 30 years. Occasionally, you will see streaks and static in the picture related to interference in the tape play back. These "tracking errors" are difficult for me to remove due to the analog nature of the playback. We used a reconditioned betamax player to play back the tape. Featured in the presentation are ABC News anchors Frank Reynolds, Hugh Downs and Max Robinson. At the time, ABC News had a multiple anchor desk format where news from major cities could be reported and anchored. Due to the historic nature of the first space shuttle mission, Frank Reynolds was sent to Edwards Air Force Base to anchor the coverage. STS-1 stands for "Space Transportation System" and flight number "1", the first mission. Remarkably, the space shuttle system was never tested without a crew aboard. During the first mission, there were concerns about every phase of the mission profile, including launch, orbit, and entry/landing. There was trepidation among the 100,000+ viewers who crowded Dryden Flight Research Center/Edwards Air Force Base to see the landing. Public was kept in a parking area about 7 miles from the landing runway. Press was on the opposite side of the lakebed and ABC cameras frequently show reporters Jules Bergman, Lynn Sherr, and Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan on the dry lake bed. You also see Frank Reynolds sitting at a desk with occasional winds blowing his papers and hair in the hot California desert sun. I hope you enjoy this video as a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of people who participated in the space shuttle program and the thousands of news media who brought the coverage of the event to the world.

• published: 02 Dec 2014
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