Few things have captivated the world quite like space exploration.
However, at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on March 22, 1982, the three RS-25 main engines of the Space Shuttle Columbia ignited, carrying astronauts Charles Gordon Fullerton and Jack Robert Lousma. Aboard the shuttle was an experiment prepared by 18-year-old Todd E. Nelson of Rose Creek, Minnesota. The experiment focused on the effects of weightlessness on bugs in space.
Nelson designed a miniature laboratory that consisted of a plastic box divided into quadrants. The laboratory consisted of queen bees, drones and centipedes.
The movements were observed using a special motion-picture camera throughout the flight. Upon reentry on March 30, 1982, the queen bees and their drones were found dead, while the centipedes were unscathed.
The Space Shuttle Columbia landed at White Sands, New Mexico, an approved alternate landing site. The runway at Edwards Air Force Base, typically used for shuttle landings, was flooded.
If the shuttle had landed on the wet runway at Edwards Air Force Base, here’s what could have happened: The shuttle, flying under its own power, would have given the astronauts no control over whether it came in gently or at a deadly speed.
If it had come in too steep, the orbiter Columbia likely would have skidded off the runway and crashed into something at Edwards Air Force Base, damaging the shuttle and possibly injuring or killing the astronauts.
That’s why the shuttle had to land at White Sands, New Mexico. The alternate landing site has since become known as White Sands Space Harbor.
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