On April 12th, 1981, the NASA commenced the first orbital spaceflight of their Space Shuttle program - mission STS-1. The first orbiter was called "Columbia", and carried a crew of two - commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. Columbia returned to Earth 54.5 hours later on April 14th, 1981, having orbited Earth 37 times. The launch occurred on the 20th anniversary of Vostok 1, which was the first human spaceflight. Space Shuttle Columbia had an unfortuante fate, when it disintegrated upon re-entry on February 1st, 2003, killing all seven astronauts on board, during mission STS-107.
