April 12, 1981: First launching of the space shuttle

April 12, 1981: First launching of the space shuttle

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/t...day=10272 977
http://tinyurl.com/e7qcy

The space shuttle Columbia is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida,
becoming the first reusable manned spacecraft to travel into space.
Piloted by astronauts Robert L. Crippen and John W. Young, the Columbia
undertook a 54-hour space flight of 36 orbits before successfully
touching down at California's Edwards Air Force Base on April 14.

On September 17, 1976, NASA publicly unveiled its first space shuttle,
the Enterprise, during a ceremony in Palmdale, California. Development
of the aircraft-like spacecraft cost almost $10 billion and took nearly
a decade. In 1977, the Enterprise became the first space shuttle to fly
freely when it was lifted to a height of 25,000 feet by a Boeing 747
airplane and then released, gliding back to Edwards Air Force Base on
its own accord.

Regular flights of the space shuttle began on April 12, 1981, with the
launching of Columbia. Launched by two solid-rocket boosters and an
external tank, only the aircraft-like shuttle entered into orbit around
Earth. When the mission was completed, the shuttle fired engines to
reduce speed and, after descending through the atmosphere, landed like
a glider. Early shuttles took satellite equipment into space and
carried out various scientific experiments. On January 28, 1986, NASA
and the space shuttle program suffered a major setback when the
Challenger exploded 74 seconds after takeoff and all seven people
aboard were killed.

In September 1988, space shuttle flights resumed with the successful
launching of the Discovery. In subsequent years, the space shuttle
carried out numerous important missions, such as the repair and
maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and the construction and
manning of the International Space Station.

A tragedy in space again rocked the nation on February 1, 2003, when
Columbia, on its 28th mission, disintegrated during re-entry of the
earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. In the
aftermath, the space-shuttle program was grounded until Discovery
returned to space in July 2005, amid concerns that the problems that
had downed Columbia had not yet been fully solved.