Maiden Orbital Flight of the Space Shuttle
Columbia had to do something no spacecraft had done before: carry a crew into orbit on its first flight, then return as a winged glider. Its two-day mission tested a new approach to space travel.
On April 12, 1981, John Young and Robert Crippen lifted off aboard Columbia from Kennedy Space Center. The first Space Shuttle mission had already been postponed for two days by a computer timing problem. Now a crew was taking an entirely new orbital vehicle into flight, with the launch, spacecraft systems and return all part of the test.
Once in orbit, the astronauts opened the payload bay doors and checked the systems that kept the spacecraft operating. Those doors were more than cargo access: opening them exposed radiators that released heat. The mission carried instrumentation to record how Columbia actually behaved, rather than simply demonstrate that it could reach space.
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Image: NASA