14 DAY TRIAL // This amazing image, collected shortly after 1200 UTC on April 12, 1981, shows Columbia launching to space in the first-ever flight conducted under the NASA Space Shuttle Program (SSP). Unlike subsequent missions, STS-1 had only two crewmembers.
NASA astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen launched from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, and landed on Runway 23 at the Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), in California, on April 14.
The first shuttle flight lasted for 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, 53 seconds, covered more than 1,728,000 kilometers (1,074,000 miles), and allowed Columbia to complete 37 full orbits around the planet.
In this particular image, the shuttle is seen attached to its external fuel tank (top), while the two Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB) that aided the orbiter during ascent fall back to the ground, after exhausting their fuel.