A difficult path to First Flights

Abstract

The first Shuttle mission to carry Spacelab hardware ended almost as soon as it began. On 12 April 1981, Columbia launched from Pad 39A at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for STS-1, the maiden voyage of the Space Transportation System. For two days, Commander John Young and Pilot Bob Crippen circled the globe 36 times, then guided their ship back home, like a great mechanised bird of prey, to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California. STS-1 was the first of four test flights before the Shuttle entered operational service. But even as Columbia’s six wheels kissed Edwards’ dry lakebed runway, kicking up a rooster-tail of dust and debris in their wake, preparations for her second flight, STS-2 (and Spacelab’s first taste of space) were underway. Sadly, STS-2 took a long time to reach space and concluded earlier than anyone hoped. Columbia would make history as the world’s premier ‘used’ spaceship: the first crewed vehicle to travel into space more than once. Commanding the five-day flight was Joe Engle, with Dick Truly as pilot.