New Delhi, Apr 14: The space shuttle program of NASA was known as the Space Transportation System (STS). The first space shuttle flight took place on April 12, 1981 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. This was STS1, aboard the orbiter Columbia. It was the first reusable spacecraft to orbit around the Earth. It was also the first crewed mission with two astronauts. One was Commander Jon W. Young, who had the experience of four previous trips to space and had walked on moon in 1972. The other was pilot Robert Crippen, who went on to command three future space shuttle missions. This shuttle program was unique since it allowed astronauts to land on a runway. The objective of this mission was to demonstrate the safe launch into orbit and safe return of the orbiter and the crew. It returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours after launch, having orbited the Earth 36 times. Thereafter, it had undertaken 28 missions. NASA released a video to mark the 40th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission Columbia.
This news is reported by Aryaa Sinha
