STS-1

STS-1

The launch of STS-1, April 12, 1981
Names	Space Transportation System-1
Mission type	Test flight
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1981-034A
SATCAT no.	12399
Mission duration	2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes, 53 seconds (achieved)
Distance travelled	1,729,348 km (1,074,567 mi)
Orbits completed	36
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Space Shuttle Columbia
Crew
Crew size	2
Members	John Young Robert L. Crippen
Start of mission
Launch date	April 12, 1981, 12:00:04 UTC
Rocket	Space Shuttle Columbia
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center, LC-39A
Contractor	Rockwell International
End of mission
Landing date	April 14, 1981, 18:20:57 UTC
Landing site	Edwards Air Force Base, Runway 23
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric orbit
Regime	Low Earth orbit
Perigee altitude	246 km (153 mi)
Apogee altitude	274 km (170 mi)
Inclination	40.30°
Period	89.88 minutes
Instruments
Development Flight Instrumentation (DFI)
STS-1 mission patch Young and Crippen Space Shuttle program ← Approach and Landing Tests (ALT) STS-2 →

STS-1 (Space Transportation System-1) was the first orbital spaceflight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. The first orbiter, Columbia, launched on April 12, 1981,^[1] and returned on April 14, 1981, 54.5 hours later, having orbited the Earth 37 times. Columbia carried a crew of two—mission commander John W. Young and pilot Robert L. Crippen. It was the first American crewed space flight since the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) in 1975. STS-1 was also the maiden test flight of a new American spacecraft to carry a crew, though it was preceded by atmospheric testing (ALT) of the orbiter and ground testing of the Space Shuttle system.

The launch occurred on the 20th anniversary of Vostok 1, the first human spaceflight, performed by Yuri Gagarin for the USSR. This was a coincidence rather than a celebration of the anniversary; a technical problem had prevented STS-1 from launching two days earlier, as was planned.