On this day in Space history, May 19, 2000, the new space shuttle “glass cockpit” made its debut.
The old Atlantis cockpit had four cathode-ray tube displays and 32 different gauges and indicators. Replacing these were eleven new flat-panel, full-color display screens. The new technology made it far easier to pilot the shuttle (plus, it looked way cooler). It weighed 75 pounds less, which improved the space shuttle’s fuel consumption.
The May 19th mission, STS-101, saw six NASA astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut flying to the International Space Station to deliver supplies and do some construction and maintenance tasks.
