12/04/2022
The first launch of the Space Shuttle occurred on this day, April 12th, 1981, with two crew members, astronauts John W. Young, commander, and Robert L. Crippen, pilot, lifting off from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, KSC.
STS-1 was one of only two shuttle flights to have its External Tank 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 saving of approximately 600 lb, and gave the ET the distinctive orange shade.
During the orbiter's first flight, the heat shield was damaged when an overpressure wave from the solid rocket booster forced the shuttle's "body flap" – an extension on the orbiter's underbelly that helps to control pitch during reentry - more than 5° out of position and into an angle well beyond the point where cracking or rupture of the hydraulic system would have been expected. Such damage would have made a controlled descent nearly impossible, with John Young later admitting that had the crew been privy to the potential for catastrophe, they would have flown the shuttle up to a safe altitude and ejected, causing Columbia to have been lost on the first flight. Initial analysis of this anomaly was discovered to be due to a misprediction of the pitching moment at hypersonic speeds. This issue was addressed and corrected in later flights.
After a mission time of 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 53 seconds, Columbia touched down on Runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 10:21 am PST on April 14, 1981
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