I was a youngster on this date in 1981. Please don’t ask me what happened on this day because I honestly don’t recall any; it was that memorable. All I can say for sure is that it was a Saturday in Northwest Indiana.
But the next day… Now, that was a day that was ingrained into my memory.
Tomorrow marks 44 years since STS-1—commonly known as the Space Shuttle Columbia—launched from the Kennedy Space Center early in the morning, debuting the new generation of reusable spacecraft for the United States.
A two-man crew staffed the shuttle’s inaugural flight—Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen—who ushered in my generation’s era of space flight.
The orbiter spent over two days orbiting our planet before gliding into a parachute-assisted landing at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California.
During its flight, Columbia traveled more than one million miles in space. (For those of you who are detail-oriented, the official mileage is 1,074,567 miles.)
One of the trivia facts about this flight is that the STS-1 was one of only two shuttle launches that used a white external fuel tank. The tank was painted white to cover the external foam on the tank. Starting with the third shuttle launch, the white paint was not applied, saving about 600 pounds from the total launch weight.
Growing up in this era, I find it interesting that space exploration’s latest generation has returned to rockets in the style of those used for the initial Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. But that is the direction NASA is taking with the Artemis program, as well as the other privately-owned space transport companies.
