STS-1 Launch, Columbia (April 12, 1981)

STS-1 Mission: First Shuttle Mission/Shuttle Systems Test Flight
Space Shuttle: Columbia
Launch Pad: 39A
Launched: April 12, 1981 at 7:00:03 a.m. EST
Launch Weight: 219,258 pounds
Landing Site: Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Landing: April 14, 1981 at 10:20:57 a.m. PST
Runway: 23
Rollout Distance: 8,993 feet
Rollout Time: 60 seconds
Revolution: 37
Mission Duration: 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, and 53 seconds
Returned to KSC: April 28, 1981
Orbit Altitude: 166 nautical miles
Orbit Inclination: 40.3 degrees
Miles Traveled: 1.074 million

Mission Objectives

Demonstrate safe launch into orbit and safe return of the orbiter and crew. Verify the combined performance of the entire shuttle vehicle - orbiter, solid rocket boosters and external tank.

Payloads included the Developmental Flight Instrumentation (DFI) and the Aerodynamic Coefficient Identifications Package (ACIP) pallet containing equipment for recording temperatures, pressures and acceleration levels at various points on the vehicle.

Mission Highlights

Major systems tested successfully on first flight of Space Transportation System. Orbiter sustained tile damage on launch and from overpressure wave created by the solid rocket boosters. Subsequent modifications to the water sound suppression system eliminated the problem. A total of sixteen tiles were lost and 148 tiles were damaged.

NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Raajur]

The best looking space craft ever built. I don't care what you say, that thing looks AMAZING.

[EndeavourLaunch]

I care about my pointless spaceplane, which constructed the largest space station to date. I care about my pointless spaceplane, the most technologically advanced spacecraft ever built.

[bombarderoazul]

It was a nice craft indeed, but I think the Russian Buran was prettier, yeah it was a copy of American STS but the ruskies made it better, it had a sleeker profile, and because it didn't use it's main engines to get to space it could carry more cargo to space and bring back more cargo, also it had a crew of 10 instead of 7 like STS. Fortunately for NASA, they enjoy a massive budget compared to the one of Russia.

[Gerardo Munguía]

And my favorite is "Go all throttle up!"

[ublade82]

You don't need a partially reusable manned spaceplane at $1 billion a launch, with no escape system, to launch communications satellites.

The fact that it's an engineering marvel is of course impressive, and should give anyone goosebumps. But it's only the most technologically advanced spacecraft because it was the most recent manned spacecraft. Anything you build next is more advanced than what you had before. Being advanced doesn't make it good. The shuttle we got wasn't good.

[wlakner]

Rush Countdown.

[TrainGuy33]

My favorite saying: "the shuttle has cleared the tower!"

[twilke43]

Well, I suppose the British could take the lead, but you folks have a tendency to hound your brightest and best scientists and thinkers into suicide because they're gay (ahem Alan Turing, hello)

[twilke43]

"Who cares about your pointless spaceplane?" says the dumbass who doesn't realize that the technology that launched that spaceplane is what enables him to have a functional cell phone. That spaceplane carried the satellites into space, that enable your cell phone to work.

[HeNe Spaceflight]

Though it had its shortcomings and tragic failures, the Shuttle was the most advanced and versatile spacecraft ever built.

[chalicechiq]

Don't worry about the poor jealous Brit whose country, for all their higher taxes than ours, has never produced a space program as awesome as ours. USA!

[chalicechiq]

Show me something, anything of the UK's space program that is better than anything the US has done since NASA's first day on the job.