STS-1
First Space Shuttle mission, first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981,[1] and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 37 times. Columbia carried a crew of two—commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed space flight since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. STS-1 was also the maiden test flight of a new American spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing (ALT) of the orbiter and ground testing of the Space Shuttle system.
Names | Space Transportation System-1 |
---|---|
Mission type | Flight test |
Operator | NASA |
COSPAR ID | 1981-034A |
SATCAT no. | 12399 |
Mission duration | 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, 53 seconds |
Distance travelled | 1,729,348 km (1,074,567 mi) |
Orbits completed | 36 |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Columbia |
Crew | |
Crew size | 2 |
Members | |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | April 12, 1981, 12:00:04 (1981-04-12UTC12:00:04Z) UTC (07:00:04 am EST) |
Launch site | Kennedy, LC-39A |
Contractor | Rockwell International |
End of mission | |
Landing date | April 14, 1981, 18:20:57 (1981-04-14UTC18:20:58Z) UTC (10:20:57 am PST) |
Landing site | Edwards, Runway 23 |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
Regime | Low Earth orbit |
Perigee altitude | 246 km (153 mi) |
Apogee altitude | 274 km (170 mi) |
Inclination | 40.30° |
Period | 89.88 minutes |
Instruments | |
Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) | |
STS-1 mission patch Young and Crippen |
The launch occurred on the 20th anniversary of Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, performed by Yuri Gagarin for the USSR. This was a coincidence rather than a celebration of the anniversary; a technical problem had prevented STS-1 from launching two days earlier, as was planned.