The first space shuttle launch took place in 1981, when Columbia lifted off on NASA mission STS-1.
STS-1 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 12, 1981. Commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen were aboard Columbia for the spacecraft’s first orbital flight. The mission lasted 54.5 hours and completed 36 orbits before landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
The launch was delayed two days by a computer-timing problem aboard Columbia. Its date also coincided with the twentieth anniversary of Vostok 1, the Soviet mission that carried Yuri Gagarin into space, although the scheduling overlap was accidental.
STS-1 was a major milestone because the shuttle was designed to launch like a rocket, operate in orbit like a spacecraft, and land like an airplane. Columbia’s successful flight established that this reusable vehicle could carry astronauts safely into orbit and return them to Earth. The program went on to fly 135 missions before the shuttle era ended in 2011.