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Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA.Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 12, 1981 and ...
The external tank is released from the Space Shuttle orbiter. The first launch of the Space Shuttle occurred on April 12, 1981, exactly 20 years after the first crewed space flight, when the orbiter Columbia lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center. The launch took place at 12:00:04 UTC.
Launch date Mission Shuttle Crew [a] Duration Launch pad Landing site Notes Refs. 1 12 April 1981 12:00:04 UTC 07:00:04 EST STS-1: Columbia: 2 02d 06h LC-39A: Edwards: First orbital flight test; First reusable orbital spacecraft flight; Maiden flight of Columbia; Maiden flight of the Space Shuttle program [18] [19] [20] 2 12 November 1981 15:10 ...
STS-1 lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981, the first orbital launch of the Space Shuttle program. STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981, [1] and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having ...
Columbia was launched from Kennedy Space Center at 16:00 UTC, on March 22, 1982, the planned launch date. [5] This was the first launch with an unpainted external tank (ET). The launch was delayed by one hour due to the failure of a heater on a nitrogen-gas ground support line.
The shuttle program was marked by triumphs and failures, including the 2003 Columbia disaster. The tragedies left a lasting mark on the perception of risks in space.
Enterprise's first test flight was on February 18, 1977, only five years after the Shuttle program was formally initiated; leading to the launch of the first space-worthy shuttle Columbia on April 12, 1981, on STS-1.
The mission lasted a total of 6 days, 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 51 seconds. STS-61-C was the last successful Space Shuttle flight before the Challenger disaster, which occurred on January 28, 1986, only 10 days after Columbia ' s return. Accordingly, commander Gibson later called the STS-61-C mission "The End of Innocence" for the Shuttle Program.