STS-1: first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle

On April 12, 1981, at 7 a.m., the shuttle Columbia lifted off from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, on mission STS-1, the first flight of the space shuttle program. On board were two astronauts: John W. Young, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot.

The goal was to demonstrate that the orbiter and its crew could reach orbit and return safely, and to verify the joint operation of the whole system: orbiter, solid rocket boosters and external tank. After about 54 hours of flight, Columbia landed on April 14 at Edwards Air Force Base, in California. During the mission, the loss of several thermal protection tiles was detected.

The launch coincided, day for day, with the twentieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight aboard Vostok 1, on April 12, 1961. It was also NASA's first crewed flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of 1975.