![Space Shuttle Columbia launches for the first time on April 12, 1981.](images/sts1launch.jpg) Launch view of the Columbia for the STS-1
mission, April 12,
1981. | The Space Shuttle
Columbia roared into orbit for the first time on April 12,
1981, from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Maneuvering through
space and circling the Earth 36 times, astronauts John Young,
commander, and Robert Crippen, pilot, tested its systems, then
landed like an airplane on schedule two days, six hours, 20
minutes and 52 seconds later.
"The
Columbia operated beautifully," said Young, who now serves as
JSC associate director (technical). "As we tested all its
systems, we found the orbiter always performed like a champ.
Its demonstrated capabilities are still a real tribute to the
thousands of men and women in the United States who worked so
hard to design, develop, test and construct this incredible
aircraft and spaceship. Its remarkable operational ability has
made all of us proud to be associated with the STS-1
trailblazer of 20 years ago."
The world
hailed Columbia as the first true spaceship-an incredible
flying machine. It heralded the beginning of the era of human
round-trip travel from Earth.
This was
a new and unique spacecraft, unlike any that had ever been
produced. Designing it had offered some new and difficult
technological problems. The shuttle was to be a considerably
more complex machine than previous Apollo-Saturn systems. No
vehicle had yet been built that could be piloted both within
and outside of the Earth's atmosphere. The shuttle was a
launch vehicle, spacecraft and glider. Finally, because it was
designed for piloted landings, there could be no unmanned test
flights as there had been for all previous space
vehicles.
![The NASA 747 carrier aircraft and five T-38 aircraft flew over the Space Shuttle Orbiter 101 “Enterprise” while it was parked on the runway at Edwards Air Force Base.](images/shuttlesca.jpg) This impressive scene was photographed when
the NASA 747 carrier aircraft and five T-38 aircraft
flew over the Space Shuttle Orbiter 101 “Enterprise”
while it was parked on the runway at Edwards Air Force
Base in Southern California. The Orbiter 101 had just
completed a five-minute, 31-second unpowered mission
during the second free-flight of the Space Shuttle
Approach and Landing Test series, on September 13, 1977,
at the Dryden Flight Research
Center. |
While the
shuttle system was something new and different, development
could now draw upon a reservoir of aerospace technology, which
was virtually nonexistent a decade earlier. Design,
development and testing efforts could also draw upon the
center's unique facilities and capabilities. At the core of
what JSC was and continues to be is the engineering expertise
in its laboratory and testing facilities. These include the
vibration and acoustic facilities, the Shuttle Avionics
Integration Laboratory, the atmospheric re-entry materials and
structures lab, the thermal-vacuum labs, the electronic system
test lab, the space environment simulation lab, the life
sciences labs, and the shuttle mission simulator. In addition,
the center possesses some of the most advanced electronic,
radio and radar equipment available. During shuttle
development, it created some new equipment that was previously
nonexistent.
The White
Sands Test Facility in New Mexico and its personnel,
facilities and equipment played a key role in shuttle
development. White Sands continued to operate propulsion and
materials testing labs during the era of shuttle development
as it had for Apollo and as it continues to do today. Engine
test stands at the laboratories include altitude chambers that
simulate the vacuum of space during engine firings. Materials
test labs are constantly adapted to simulate unique space
conditions. |