First flight of Columbia

Columbia was the first space shuttle orbiter to fly into space, on mission STS-1 with astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen. It launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in April 1981, on the twentieth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight, and spent two days in orbit before landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was the first reusable winged spacecraft to go into orbit and return to a runway landing. Columbia flew many missions, carrying the Spacelab laboratory and later science missions. It was destroyed when it broke up while re-entering the atmosphere in February 2003, killing all seven crew members.

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