Shuttle Columbia renewed dreams of space voyages
In April 1981, astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen rode the space shuttle Columbia into orbit. Despite being two years behind schedule and over budget, the first successful launch and test flight of Columbia 40 years ago marked the beginning of a new era of crewed spaceflight.
The Columbia was the oldest in the shuttle fleet and had completed 27 missions before it tragically disintegrated during re-entry in 2003. From The San Diego Union, Monday, April 13, 1981:
SHUTTLE ROARS INTO ORBIT IN FLAWLESS TEST
4.5 MILLION-POUND SHIP AIRBORNE IN 6 SECONDS AS LONG WAIT ENDS
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The space shuttle Columbia, its rockets spewing orange fire and a long trail of white vapor, blasted into Earth Orbit yesterday carrying two American astronauts on a daring journey to test the world’s first reusable spaceship.
Soon after they settled into orbit, Columbia’s commander John W. Young and Navy Capt. Robert L. Crippen aimed a television camera back on the shuttle’s tail section and discovered that more than a dozen heat-shielding tiles had ripped off during the stresses of launching.
Project officials said the lost tiles should not shorten the test flight or endanger the astronauts when Columbia plunges back into the atmosphere, glowing red-hot from frictional heat, to a runway landing in California tomorrow. The projected 36-orbit, 541⁄2-hour flight is scheduled to end at Edwards Air Force Base.
The launching of Columbia occurred on time at 4 a.m. PST after a smooth countdown in notable contrast to the many delays and technical problems that had plagued the $10 billion project since 1972. The liftoff had been rescheduled from Friday because of a problem in computer linkage.
Ironically, after its numerous delays the spacecraft left its launch pad 20 years to the day after Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space.
During its third orbit yesterday, at approximately 7:30 a.m. PST, Columbia made its first of two passes over San Diego. At approximately 12:30 p.m. PST today, it will fly over the city again, from northwest to southeast.
Its mission is the first of four planned orbital tests of the space shuttle, a revolutionary complex of machinery designed to lift off like a rocket, cruise in orbit like a conventional spacecraft and return to earth like a giant glider. No other space vehicle has ever been reflown.
If the shuttle lives up to expectations, Columbia and at least tree sister ships under construction should each be capable of making as many as 100 round trips into space — flying as often as every two weeks by the mid-1980s — deploying satellites and servicing others, and also carrying scientific laboratories and planetary probes. Plans for the program include carrying scientists and other non-astronauts into space.
The shuttle will be used by the Air Force on about onethird of its future flights — a first for U.S. manned spacecraft, which have always been non-military.
The Columbia is the largest manned spacecraft ever launched—capable of carrying up to seven persons in normal flights, 10 in an emergency, plus a cargo the size of a Greyhound bus.