After six years of silence, the thunder of manned space flight was heard again on April 12, 1981 as Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on STS-1.
EC81-15507 / KSC-81PC-0382 / S81-30498
STS-1 Launch
After six years of silence, the thunder of manned space flight was heard again on April 12, 1981 as Space Shuttle Columbia launched from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on STS-1, the first shuttle orbital test flight. The early-morning launch of Columbia, the first reusable spacecraft, carried astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen on a 54-hour mission that ended with unpowered landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.April 12, 1981
NASA photo