12 April 1981: Inaugural Launch Of Space Shuttle Columbia

On 12 April 1981, a bright, white Space Shuttle Columbia roared into a deep blue sky from Pad A, Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center, FL as the nation's first reusable Space Shuttle.  The project name that encompassed the Space Shuttle program is Space Transportation System (STS), and this maiden flight of Columbia was denoted by STS-1.

Named after the first American ocean vessel to circle the globe, and the command module for the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Columbia continued this heritage of intrepid exploration. The heaviest of NASA's orbiters, Columbia weighed too much and lacked the necessary equipment to assist with assembly of the International Space Station. Despite its limitations, the orbiter's legacy is one of groundbreaking scientific research and notable "firsts" in space flight.

STS-1 was manned by John Young (Commander) and Robert Crippen (Pilot), two very experienced astronauts.  Both Young and Crippen were selected as the STS-1 crew in March 1978.

Young was the most experienced NASA astronaut at the time, and was also the only member of his astronaut class in service. He had first flown in 1965 as pilot of Gemini 3, the first manned flight of the Gemini program, and would later command Gemini 10 in 1966. After the conclusion of the Gemini program, Young flew as command module pilot of Apollo 10 in 1969 and walked on the Moon as commander of Apollo 16 in 1972. He later became Chief of the Astronaut Office in 1974.

Crippen, who had joined NASA in 1969 after the cancellation of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, was a rookie and would become the first of his astronaut group to fly in space. Prior to his selection on STS-1, Crippen participated in the Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test, and also served as a capsule communicator for all three Skylab missions and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

A close-up of he SRS-1 logo that appears on each of the two astronaut's flight suits is shown below.

Coincidentally, due to an unforeseen two-day delay caused by technical issues, the launch of STS-1 occurred exactly on the 20th anniversary of the first-ever human spaceflight - Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first human in space on 12 April 1961.

Not only was this the first launch of the Space Shuttle, but it marked the first time that solid-fuel rocket boosters were used for a NASA manned launch (although all of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts had relied on a solid-fuel motor in their escape towers).

STS-1 was also the first U.S. manned space vehicle launched without an unmanned powered test flight. The STS-1 orbiter, Columbia, also holds the record for the amount of time spent in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) before launch – 610 days, the time needed for the replacement of many of its heat-shield tiles.

The primary mission objectives of the STS-1 maiden flight were to perform a general check of the Space Shuttle system, accomplish a safe ascent into orbit, and to return to Earth for a safe landing. The only payload carried on the mission was a Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI) package, which contained sensors and measuring devices to record the Orbiter's performance and the stresses that occurred during launch, ascent, orbital flight, descent and landing. All of these objectives were met successfully, and the Orbiter's spaceworthiness was verified.

During the second day of the mission, the astronauts received a phone call from Vice President George H. W. Bush. President Ronald Reagan had originally intended to visit the Mission Control Center during the mission, but at the time was still recovering from an assassination attempt which had taken place two weeks before the launch (in fact Reagan had only returned home to the White House the day prior to the launch).

Columbia reached an orbital altitude of 166 nautical miles (307 km). The 37-orbit, 1,074,567-mile (1,729,348 km)-long flight lasted 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 53 seconds.

Landing occurred on Runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 10:21 am PST on 14 April 1981.

Columbia was returned to Kennedy Space Center from Edwards Air Force Base, California on 28 April 1981 atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.  Note the chase plane accompanying the return of Columbia to Florida.

I had finished my MSEE requirements at Auburn University, AL on Tuesday, 21 October 1980 (due to graduate school glitches that delayed my thesis review, I was formally graduated on 19 March 1981), and I reported to work at Sperry Flight Systems in Phoenix, Arizona on Monday, 3 November 1980. 

On Tuesday, 4 November 1980, Republican Ronald Wilson Reagan was overwhelmingly elected President Of The United States (POTUS) by soundly defeating the incumbent President, James Earl (Jimmy) Carter, in a landslide. 

During the campaign that occurred while I was putting the final touches on my MSEE graduation requirements, Reagan had promised to increase spending for the defense and space exploration sectors, and when I went to interview with several players in these industries, I found a plethora of options for my continued employment for the foreseeable future.

The team at Sperry Flight Systems was already developing pointing, tracking, and base motion isolation systems for use in supporting experiments inside the Space Shuttle payload bay: one with NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, AL and one with NASA/Langley Research Center, VA.  A link to a study of such systems that I did in 1984 - NASA Contractor Report 172481, Impact Of Magnetic Isolation On Pointing Performance In The Presence Of Structural Flexibility, February 1985 - is included below for the interested reader seeking publications in this area.  Keep in mind that this study and report are over thirty years old at the writing of this article.  Given the available computing capabilities that I had, I am amazed that my results correlated as well as they did.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19850018550.pdf

The Space Shuttle program has come and gone.  The International Space Station that America dreamed of during Reagan's Presidency dwindled horribly and is now a dwarf in comparison to its original concept, and we now have to hitch a ride with the Russians to go to the existing International Space Station.  What happened?  The replacement for the Space Shuttles should have "been on the drawing boards" on 12 April 1981 - the date of the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Columbia!  Didn't happen!

As such, the five American Space Shuttles - Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery, Endeavor - collectively flew for over thirty years, well beyond their design life. 

We lost two of them and their crews:

Challenger exploded due to low-temperature failure of SRB O-ring seals a few seconds after launch in January, 1986.  Entire crew lost.  Hopefully, they never knew what hit them.

Columbia disintegrated upon reentry to Earth's atmosphere in February, 2003 due to damaged heat shield tiles on the leading edges of wings incurred at launch.  I saw those pieces of hard foam fly off of the main fuel tank during launch, and nervously wondered at that time what might happen if those pieces of foam were to strike the brittle heat shield tiles.  Unfortunately, I got the horrible answer. 

I know a lot of people who live in East Texas as well as Western Louisiana.  They have told me that debris and remnants from the disintegration of Columbia are scattered for several hundred miles along a swath of land underneath the Columbia reentry flight path. What a tragedy. Entire crew lost. Hopefully, they never knew what hit them.

While working in the Kennedy Space Center area in 1994-1995, I was fortunate to have a NASA friend acquire passes to the launch area to witness the launch of STS-67 Endeavor in the wee hours.of 2 March 1995.

I figure we were about two miles from the launchpad, as I started counting seconds when I saw the boosters and the main engine ignite.  When I got to a count of ten, I heard the sounds of same.  Since we were definitely at sea level, I felt that we were about two miles away, give or take a little.

When Endeavour lifrted off from the launch pad, the noise was deafening, and it was so bright that it may as well have been daylight.  We stayed and watched the SRBs jettison, and then Endeavor safely separated from the main fuel tank and went on Her way.  Once we received word that Endeavour had successfully been handed off to a tracking station in Morocco, we left the viewing area along with throngs of people who wanted to see the same things we wanted to see. 

We were one big mosquito bite, and were more than a little tired and sleepy the next day at work, but it was worth it to experience such a marvelous spectacle of Human ingenuity and perserverance.  As I tell people regarding the viewing of live ebents: If you want to see it, stay home and watch it on TV.  If you want to experience it, go to the scene and observe the happenings in real time.

During the 2016 political campaign, President Donald Trump has asserted that he wants to reenergize America's space program and place a renewed interest and emphasis on science and mathematics throughout the United States.

Sir, you are The Boss.  Do it!  The Buck Stops With You! I am tired of seeing America slipping in rank and standing in the science and mathematics fields in comparison to other countries.

We need to recover our high standing in the World.  No better place to start than right here, right now.

Peace!

SOURCES:  www.nasa.gov ; www.wikipedia.com ; www.google.com ; www.bing.com