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STS-1

STS-1
Mission statistics
Mission name	STS-1
Space shuttle	Space Shuttle Columbia
Crew size	2
Launch pad	Kennedy Space Center, Florida LC 39A
Launch date	April 12, 1981 12:00:03 UTC
Landing site	Edwards AFB, Runway 23
Landing	April 14, 1981 18:20:57 UTC
Mission duration	2d/6:20:53
Number of orbits	37
Apogee	156 mi (251 km)
Perigee	149 mi (240 km)
Orbital period	89.4 min
Orbital altitude	307 km (191 mi)
Orbital inclination	40.3 degrees
Distance traveled	1.728 million km
Crew photo
Crew members John W. Young (left) and Robert L. Crippen pose in ejection escape suits (EES) with small model of the space shuttle.
Related missions
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STS-1 was the first orbital flight of the United States Space Shuttle, launched on 12 April 1981, and returning to Earth 14 April. Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the earth 37 times in this 54.5-hour mission. It was the first US manned space flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project on 15 July 1975. STS-1 was the only US manned maiden test flight of a new spacecraft system, although it was the culmination of atmospheric testing of the Space Shuttle orbiter.

Crew

Backup crew

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Orbiter Liftoff: 219,256 lb (99,453 kg)
  • Orbiter Landing: 195,466 lb (88,662 kg)
  • DFI payload: 10,822 lb (4,909 kg)
• Perigee: 149 mi (240 km)
• Apogee: 156 mi (251 km)
• Inclination: 40.3°
• Period: 89.4 min

Mission highlights

The first launch of the Space Shuttle occurred on 12 April 1981, exactly 20 years after the first manned space flight, when the orbiter Columbia, with two crew members, astronauts John W. Young, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, lifted off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, at the Kennedy Space Center — the first of 24 launches from Pad A. The launch took place at precisely 7 a.m. EST. A launch attempt 2 days earlier was scrubbed because of a timing problem in one of Columbia’s general purpose computers.

Not only was this the first launch of the Space Shuttle, but it marked the first time that solid-fuel rockets were used for a NASA manned launch. (Note that all Mercury and Apollo astronauts had relied on a solid-fuel motor in the escape tower.) It 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, time needed for replacement of many of its heat shield tiles.

Primary mission objectives of the maiden flight were to check out the overall 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 orbiter performance and the stresses that occurred during launch, ascent, orbital flight, descent and landing. All of these objectives were met successfully, and the Shuttle vehicle spaceworthiness was verified.

During Day 2, the astronauts received a phone call from Vice President George H. W. Bush. President Ronald Reagan originally intended to visit the Mission Control Center during the mission, but was still recovering from an assassination attempt two weeks before launch.

The STS-1 Shuttle 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 a.m. PST, 14 April 1981. Columbia was returned to Kennedy Space Center from California on April 28 atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft.

Mission anomalies

STS-1 touches down at Edwards Air Force Base

STS-1 was the first test flight of what was, and still is, the most complex spacecraft ever built. There were numerous problems – 'anomalies' in NASA parlance – on the flight, as many systems could not be adequately tested on the ground or independently. Some of the most significant are listed below:

A tile next to the right-hand External Tank (ET) door on the underside of the shuttle was incorrectly installed, leading to excessive re-entry heating and melting of part of the ET door latch.
The astronauts' on-orbit visual inspection showed significant damage to the thermal protection tiles on the OMS/RCS pods at the orbiter aft end, and John Young reported that two tiles on the nose looked like someone had taken 'big bites out of them'. Post-flight inspection of Columbia's heat shield revealed that an overpressure wave from the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) ignition resulted in the loss of 16 tiles and damage to 148 others.
The same overpressure wave pushed the body flap below the main engines at the rear of the shuttle well past the point where damage to the hydraulic system would be expected, which would have made a safe re-entry impossible. The crew were unaware of this until after the flight, and John Young reportedly said that if they had been aware of the potential damage at the time, they would have flown the shuttle up to a safe altitude and ejected, causing Columbia to have been lost on the first flight.
Bob Crippen reported that all through the first stage of the launch up to SRB separation, he saw 'white stuff' coming off the External Tank and splattering the windows, which was probably the white paint covering the ET thermal foam.
The toilet suffered from 'low urinal flow and a feces separation problem'.
Columbia's aerodynamics at high Mach number were found to differ significantly in some respects from those estimated in pre-flight testing. A misprediction of the location of the center of pressure (due to using an ideal gas model instead of a real gas model) caused the computer to extend the body flap by sixteen degrees rather than the expected eight or nine, and side-slip during the first bank reversal maneuver was twice as high as predicted.
During remarks at a 2003 gathering, John Young stated that a protruding tile gap filler ducted hot gas into the right main landing gear well, which caused significant damage including buckling of the landing gear. Buckling of the door, but not the landing gear, is documented in the post-flight anomaly report.
Despite these problems, STS-1 was a successful test, and in most respects Columbia came through with flying colors. After some modifications to the shuttle and to the launch and re-entry procedures, Columbia would fly the next four Shuttle missions.

Mission insignia

The artwork for the official mission insignia was designed by artist Robert McCall. It is a symbolic representation of the shuttle. The image does not depict the black wing roots present on the actual shuttle.

Anniversary

The plaque of the Young-Crippen Firing Room in the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center

The ultimate launch date of STS-1 fell on the 20th anniversary of Vostok 1, the first manned spaceflight. Another twenty years later, in 2001, Yuri's Night would be established to celebrate both events.

In tribute to the 25th anniversary of the first flight of Space Shuttle, Firing Room 1 in the Launch Control Center at Kennedy Space Center was renamed to the Young-Crippen Firing Room, dedicating the firing room that launched the historic flight and the crew of STS-1.

NASA described the mission as: "The boldest test flight in history".

External tank

STS-1 was one of only two shuttle flights to have its External Tank (ET) painted white. To reduce the shuttle's overall weight, all flights from STS-3 onward used an unpainted tank. The use of an unpainted tank provided a weight savings of approximately 272 kilograms (600 lb), and gives the ET the distinctive orange color which is now associated with the Space Shuttle.