Does anyone remember?

I grew up in South Florida and remember watching the shuttle go up (in the 80's) from my back yard. There was the usual media coverage, countdown, interviews, etc., however, I distincly remember a few times where I would see the shuttle go up and there would be NO COVERAGe whatsoever about it. It's hard to miss a large space shuttle shooting up in the sky. Does anyone who lived in that area remember this? Why would there be no media? I was in 6th/7th grade approximately. I guess it's on my mind at this time due to the new launch.

Some shuttle flights were military based, and the launch times were not disclosed until, you guessed it, launch time. That's my best guess as to why at least.

Yup.....probably military!

The shuttle is also used to launch military sattelittes in to orbit, so any launch that is not given the usual coverage is probably just dropping off a sattelitte, doing a few experiments then returning home after a few days!

But i'll bet theres not many more launches that wont have worldwide coverage since Columbia!


Mic

The Space Shuttle Endeavor is used for Military missions only. That's probably what you saw.

I believe that it was simply apathy--no one cared anymore, until the Challanger incident. People love to see a tragidy live on TV.