Wings in Space: Columbia Launches the Space Shuttle Era

The first space shuttle flight lifts-off on April 12, 1981. (NASA)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A new era of human spaceflight began in April 1981, as two NASA astronauts lifted-off aboard the first reusable winged spacecraft to set sail on the ocean of space.

Nothing is more associated with the 1980s as the space shuttle. In fact, Columbia's maiden launch was the first video ever played when MTV launched four months later.

Astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen served as the flight crew for the first space shuttle flight. Launched on April 12, 1981, the historic mission of shuttle Columbia allowed NASA to begin

Young was a veteran of two Gemini and two Apollo space missions, and Crippen was a rookie who had supported the Skylab missions. Each trained for nearly four years in preparation for this flight.

It was Young who was working the surface of the Moon in 1972 when NASA informed him that the space shuttle was approved for development. “The country needs that shuttle mighty bad,” Young replied.

"I just thought it was a great first flight, and I was really lucky to have Bob Crippen with me because he knew all the software end to end," Commander Young said during a NASA interview in 2006. "Of course, the vehicle is totally software controlled, pretty much, and I think there are 500 and something switches that goes through software on the vehicle."

Historic First Space Shuttle Launch

Originally, lift-off was scheduled for April 10, however a computer software issue late in the countdown scrubbed the first attempt. Two days later, the countdown resumed and the astronauts reentered Columbia's hatch.

"It was a pure test mission, and all we wanted to do was to prove that the system would work," Crippen noted during a recent NASA interview. "Our job was to take-off, get into orbit, check out all the systems on (Columbia) and bring it in safely for a landing."

Every step of this first launch was just that, a first. The entire space shuttle stack had never been flown together. It was truly a white-knuckle time as the countdown reached one minute.

"It was only when the count got inside of a minute that I turned to John and said 'I think we might really do it'," Crippen recalled. "I think it was at that point my heart rate went up to 130."

At T-6 seconds, Columbia's three main engines roared to life. The entire space shuttle lurched forward. Water at the base of the launch pad flowed to help dampen the thunderous vibrations in time for booster ignition.

As the countdown clock reached zero, the two solid rocket boosters ignited. A combination of smoke and steam billowed around historic launch pad 39-A, and America's first space shuttle leapt from her pad.

"We have lift-off, lift-off of America's first space shuttle," NASA launch commentator Hugh Harris exclaimed at the moment. "And, the shuttle has cleared the tower!"

Two minutes into the launch, the twin solid rocket boosters separated. Columbia's three main engines continued to burn for another six minutes.

"It was just like riding on glass," Young noted of the ascent after the boosters were jettisoned. "You could read the instruments while you were flying, so that was pretty good. It wasn't shaking so bad you couldn't read the instruments and you could see, at past the solid rocket motor stage, it worked great."

'Columbia You're Go for Orbit Ops'

Columbia, the gem of the new ocean, arrived in orbit nearly nine minutes after launch. Mission control worked with the astronauts to prepare the spacecraft for orbit operations. The astronauts first performed a burn by the untested orbital maneuvering engines to raise their altitude.

"We had a good time taking it around and seeing what the temperatures were going to be and flying different attitudes," Young expressed of their time on-orbit.

"Checking those out and opening and closing the payload bay doors, and operating all the systems and firing the orbital maneuvering system's engines to put us in various orbits, and it worked very well."

The shuttle's two payload bay doors were opened, and a Ku-Band antenna to transmit TV was moved into position.

Once the crew left the their flight seats and moved to the aft facing windows, they became alarmed at what they saw. The vibration of the launch had shaken off several of the heat-resistant white tiles from each of the OMS pods.

Crippen radioed mission control and trained a cargo bay camera on the pods in a live video downlink. Tile experts in mission control quickly dismissed those missing tiles as not not critical during reentry.

Behind the scenes at NASA, many worried about the possible loss of critical tiles on her belly. During this flight, there was no way for the astronauts to inspect the underside.

In all, NASA reported post flight that 16 tiles had been lost and 148 were damaged. The space agency added that a strong vibration at booster ignition shook free many of the tiles. The sound suppression water system at the launch pad would later be improved to avoid the tremendous shockwave again.

While on orbit, Columbia's payload bay included an experiments pallet. Scientific research included recording temperatures, pressures, and acceleration levels on and around the spacecraft.

The crew's food menu was a huge improvement since the Apollo-era. Young and Crippen's first meal consisted of frank furters and turkey tetrazzini, bananas, and apple juice.

First Winged Spacecraft Comes Home

Following two days in space, Columbia and her crew headed for home. Never had a winged spacecraft left orbit and reentered the Earth's atmosphere.

The first space shuttle re-entry occurred northeast of Guam at just below 400,000 feet. A 16 minute communications blackout shortly began as Columbia flew an arc north of Hawaii.

NASA had test data from flying the non-space rated shuttle Enterprise during atmospheric flight tests. Enterprise had landed on a runway five times piloted by two separate crews in 1977.

Performing a series of S-turns to slow the spacecraft down, Columbia glided home with her nose pitched down. As Columbia crossed over the coastline of California and 134,000 feet above, Crippen radioed, "What a way to come to California."

Young manually flew the previously unflown glider beginning at over eight times the speed of sound. Four minutes prior to landing, Columbia began to line up with the runway at Edwards Air Force Base.

Two NASA T-38 chase planes began flying on either side of the orbiter as Columbia dropped below 39,000 feet. The aircraft provided a then-unique live television view of the landing.

Chase one was flown by astronaut Jon McBride with George "Pinky" Nelson in the backseat. This chase called out the altitudes and speeds.

Chase two was piloted by Johnson Space Center pilot Dick Gray and photographer Pete Stanley in the backseat. Each chase aircraft had a back-up aircraft on stand by. All four aircraft had taken off about 45 minutes prior to the first shuttle landing.

Columbia lands at Edwards AFB in California completing STS-1. (NASA)

During the final 25 seconds, Young pitched the nose up and Crippen dropped the landing gear. The orbiter glided in to a pinpoint landing.

As thousands of nearby crowds watched, the shuttle's main gear touched down on the desert runway 23 at 10:20 a.m. PST. Seconds later, her nose was guided down and dust blew up signaling she was home.

Jokingly, Young radioed Houston and asked if he could steer her toward the hanger. Fifty-four hours and 21 minutes after leaving the Kennedy Space Center, Columbia rolled to a stop on the dry lakebed one minute later.

Young left the spacecraft first and was greeted by NASA officials including George Abbey. The senior astronaut then walked around Columbia, and like a new father, was very excited with fists pumping and wearing a big grin.

Columbia had traveled 1.07 million miles and circled the Earth 37 times. Two weeks later, Columbia was back at the Kennedy Space Center following a cross country ferry flight a top a Boeing 747.

"It was a fantastic flying machine, but it was also a fragile one," Crippen said. "It'll be a long time before we have a vehicle that's nearly as magnificent as the space shuttle was."

"I sure enjoyed it and I appreciate all the work the people did down at the Kennedy Space Center to fix STS-1 to get it ready to go," Young added. "The vehicle performed just like we thought it would, pretty much. We learned a bunch of things."

In the summer of 1982, a short IMAX documentary Hail Columbia was released. It play in the theater of the Kennedy Space Center's visitor's complex. The film is available through a few online media sites.

(Charles A Atkeison reports on aerospace and technology. Follow his updates via social media @Military_Flight.)