America's First Shuttle Launch Columbia Space Shuttle, STS-1

Early on the morning of April 12, 1981, two astronauts sat strapped into their seats on the flight deck of Columbia, a radically new spacecraft known as the space shuttle.

John Young, the commander, had already flown in space four times, including a walk on the moon in 1972. Bob Crippen, the pilot, was a Navy test pilot who would go on to command three future shuttle missions. But nothing either man had done or would do was quite like this.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• aviation
• space

[RebelYank]

As great as the Shuttle program was, I think it set us back as far as manned exploration is concerned. Instead of working on trying to find a way to send men to Mars we decided to chill out in Earth orbit for 30 years.

[robotkillbot]

so sad its coming to an end

[devinrandall9]

I think it's soo dumb that the last shuttle launch is in TWO hours and TEN minutes.. :( What has the the USA come to these days? :/

[48Dessie]

I watched this when i came home for dinner at lunch time....brilliant

[kistar1]

Класс и Супер!Спасибо за то что это было!

[ResidenceOfEvil]

@RebelYank Yeah, taking a 2 year+ long trip to Mars to gather information that we can just as easily get with robotic equipment is perfectly feasible.

[MrVoxi25]

@RebelYank that is cause we still at 2010 we cant send a man even to the moon.. the moon landing was all bs... but I hope we get a president like JFK to get it up going again like it was meant to be

[paulb1988]

If you want a very cool experience, sync this video to 'Countdown' by Rush off of their Signals album. They were at this launch, and thus the song.

[wiiplayer09]

nasa is going to fall because of the new space shup eve virgin galactic...they will no longer be using this shuttle anymore and it is on its last voyage

[fenderstryker1]

I think a moon colony is ambitous enough for now...