STS-1: first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle

On 12 April 1981 the orbiter Columbia lifted off on STS-1, the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle programme. It returned on 14 April 1981 after 54.5 hours and 37 orbits of the Earth, with a crew of two: commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 and the maiden flight of an entirely new crewed spacecraft.