7 Things You Didn’t Know About NASA’s First Space Shuttle Mission
STS-1 was NASA’s first mission with the new spacecraft.

NASA’s STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) mission was the first time a partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft was used.
With the dawn of NASA’s newest rocket and spacecraft on the horizon, the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft, make sure you’re up to date with these 7 facts about the first space shuttle ever launched, STS-1.
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Also, I highly recommend taking the time to read the book Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her.
Whether you lived through the shuttle program or became interested in space exploration too late, here are 7 facts you may not have known.

Fact#7 —Only two astronauts made up the crew — Mission Commander John W. Young and Pilot Robert L. Crippen.
According to NASA — “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.” — read more here.

Fact#6 — The first space shuttle orbiter was named Columbia .
According to NASA History — “The concept of a reusable, winged space vehicle can be traced back as far as the 1920s.
Rocket pioneers Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovskiy, Robert Goddard, and Hermann Oberth all wrote about reusable space vehicles during that decade, and in a series of famous articles for Colliers Weekly, American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun envisioned winged spacecraft that would travel to Mars and beyond.
Early concepts and designs led into actual rocket-powered aircraft that edged closer and closer to space. These included the Bell X-1, which became the first aircraft to fly faster than the speed of sound, and the North American X-15, which actually reached space several times and was the fastest and highest flying piloted vehicle until the Space Shuttle went into service.” — read more here.

Fact #5 —The Space Shuttle launched on April 12th, 1981 and returned on April 14th, 1981.
According NASA History — “Columbia’s 36-orbit flight would test the vehicle’s performance as a reusable spacecraft thanks to the help of two equipment packages within the Shuttle’s payload bay. The Developmental Flight Instrumentation and the Aerodynamic Coefficient Identifications Package pallet recorded temperatures, pressures, acceleration levels, and other forces on the craft throughout the flight. Another key test involved the successful operation of the massive payload bay doors, which are essential to the Shuttle’s cargo capability. The astronauts successfully opened and closed both doors before Columbia achieved its final orbital altitude, and they reopened the payload bay for the rest of the flight.” — read more here.

Fact #4 — The mission lasted 54.5 hours.
According to NASA History — “ the story of the first Shuttle mission would not be complete without a mention of another “first” that followed the flight: the first reuse of a piloted space vehicle.
In reality, the end of STS-1 was just the beginning of more than 100 successful Space Shuttle missions to come. Following its successful landing,
Columbia was placed on the back of its Boeing 747 piggyback carrier and returned to the Kennedy Space Center.
Columbia arrived for refurbishment on April 28, 1981, and entered the Orbiter Processing Facility, where technicians painstakingly repaired the heat shield, updated the Shuttle’s computers, and prepared her for a second orbital mission. While the Shuttle performed well overall, NASA needed to resolve certain issues before the second flight. ” — read more here.

Fact#3 — The crew orbited Earth 37 times.
According to NASA History — “ Prior to Columbia’s planned reentry, Young and Crippen awoke to an alarm sounding that one of the auxiliary power units (APUs) was getting colder.
These APUs provide power to flight control systems during liftoff and landing but are turned off during the flight and kept warm so they can be restarted. Columbia had two backup power units, and mission controllers deemed that the unit was not yet cold enough to pose a significant problem.
On its 34th orbit, the first Space Shuttle mission prepared for its deorbit burn and reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. John Young successfully activated the APUs, and Columbia’s thrusters fired over the Indian Ocean, slowing the craft down and causing it to lose altitude. Houston was cut off from the orbiter as the intense heat of reentry ionized gas around the vehicle and blocked radio signals for about 15 minutes. Finally, Columbia was picked up on radar, and Young reported that all systems were functioning perfectly. Just after 10:20 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, Young brought America’s first Shuttle down to a picture-perfect landing on the dry lake bed runway at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert.” — read more here.

Fact#2 —The shuttle traveled 1.074 million miles during the mission.
According to Wikipedia — “The Shuttle was one of the earliest craft to use a computerized fly-by-wire digital flight control system. This means no mechanical or hydraulic linkages connected the pilot’s control stick to the control surfaces or reaction control system thrusters. The control algorithm, which used a classical Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) approach, was developed and maintained by Honeywell.[citation needed] The Shuttle’s fly-by-wire digital flight control system was composed of 4 control systems each addressing a different mission phase: Ascent, Descent, On-Orbit and Aborts.[citation needed] Honeywell is also credited with the design and implementation of the Shuttle’s Nose Wheel Steering Control Algorithm that allowed the Orbiter to safely land at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Runway” — read more here.

Fact#1 — Prior to launch the space shuttle weighed 219,258 pounds.
According to NASA — “The only payload carried on the mission was a Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) package which contained sensors and measuring devices to record orbiterperformance and the stresses that occurred during launch, ascent, orbital flight, descent and landing.
Post-flight inspection of the Columbia revealed that an overpressure wave which occurred when the SRB ignited resulted in the loss of 16 heat shield tiles and damage to 148 others.
In all other respects, however, Columbia came through the flight with flying colors, and it was to fly the next four Shuttle missions.” — read more here.
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“The space shuttle was often used as an example of why you shouldn’t even attempt to make something reusable. But one failed experiment does not invalidate the greater goal. If that was the case, we’d never have had the light bulb.”- Elon Musk
