History
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Construction began on Columbia in 1975 at Rockwell International's (formerly North American Aviation/North American Rockwell) principal assembly facility in Palmdale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Columbia was named after the American sloop Columbia Rediviva which, from 1787 to 1793, under the command of Captain Robert Gray, explored the US Pacific Northwest and became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe. It's also named after the command module of Apollo 11, the first crewed landing on another celestial body. Columbia was also the female symbol of the United States. After construction, the orbiter arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979, to prepare for its first launch. Columbia was originally scheduled to lift off in late 1979, however the launch date was delayed by problems with both the RS-25 engine and the thermal protection system (TPS). On March 19, 1981, during preparations for a ground test, workers were asphyxiated in Columbia's nitrogen-purged aft engine compartment, resulting in (variously reported) two or three fatalities.
The first flight of Columbia (STS-1) was commanded by John Young, a veteran from the Gemini and Apollo programs who was the ninth person to walk on the Moon in 1972, and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie astronaut originally selected to fly on the military's Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) spacecraft, but transferred to NASA after its cancellation, and served as a support crew member for the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions.
Columbia spent 610 days in the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF), another 35 days in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), and 105 days on Pad 39A before finally lifting off. It was successfully launched on April 12, 1981, the 20th anniversary of the first human spaceflight (Vostok 1), and returned on April 14, 1981, after orbiting the Earth 36 times, landing on the dry lakebed runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It then undertook three further research missions to test its technical characteristics and performance. Its first operational mission, with a four-man crew, was STS-5, which launched on November 11, 1982. At this point Columbia was joined by Challenger, which flew the next three shuttle missions, while Columbia underwent modifications for the first Spacelab mission.
In 1983, Columbia, under the command of John Young on what was his sixth spaceflight, undertook its second operational mission (STS-9), in which the Spacelab science laboratory and a six-person crew was carried, including the first non-American astronaut on a space shuttle, Ulf Merbold. After the flight, it spent 18 months at the Rockwell Palmdale facility beginning in January 1984, undergoing modifications that removed the Orbiter Flight Test hardware and updating it to similar specifications as those of its sister orbiters. At that time the shuttle fleet was expanded to include Discovery and Atlantis.
Columbia returned to space on January 12, 1986, with the launch of STS-61-C. The mission's crew included Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, and the first sitting member of the House of Representatives to venture into space, Bill Nelson.
The next shuttle mission, STS-51-L, was undertaken by Challenger. It was launched on January 28, 1986, ten days after STS-61-C had landed, and ended in disaster 73 seconds after launch. Prior to the accident, Columbia had been slated to be ferried to Vandenberg Air Force Base to conduct fueling tests and to perform a flight readiness firing at SLC-6 to validate the west coast launch site. In the aftermath, NASA's shuttle timetable was disrupted, and the Vandenberg tests, which would have cost $60 million, were canceled. Columbia was not flown again until 1989 (on STS-28), after which it resumed normal service as part of the shuttle fleet.
STS-93, launched on July 23, 1999, was the first U.S. space mission with a female commander, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins. This mission deployed the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Columbia's final complete mission was STS-109, the fourth servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope. Its next mission, STS-107, culminated in the orbiter's loss when it disintegrated during reentry, killing all seven of its crew.
Consequently, President George W. Bush decided to retire the Shuttle orbiter fleet by 2010 in favor of the Constellation program and its crewed Orion spacecraft. The Constellation program was later canceled with the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 signed by President Barack Obama on October 11.
Construction milestonesedit
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| July 26, 1972 | Contract Awarded to North American Rockwell |
| March 25, 1975 | Start long-lead fabrication aft fuselage |
| November 17, 1975 | Start long-lead fabrication of crew module |
| June 28, 1976 | Start assembly of crew module |
| September 13, 1976 | Start structural assembly of aft fuselage |
| December 13, 1977 | Start assembly upper forward fuselage |
| January 3, 1977 | Start assembly vertical stabilizer |
| August 26, 1977 | Wings arrive at Palmdale from Grumman |
| October 28, 1977 | Lower forward fuselage on dock, Palmdale |
| November 7, 1977 | Start of Final Assembly |
| February 24, 1978 | Body flap on dock, Palmdale |
| April 28, 1978 | Forward payload bay doors on dock, Palmdale |
| May 26, 1978 | Upper forward fuselage mate |
| July 7, 1978 | Complete mate forward and aft payload bay doors |
| September 11, 1978 | Complete forward RCS |
| February 3, 1979 | Complete combined systems test, Palmdale |
| February 16, 1979 | Airlock on dock, Palmdale |
| March 5, 1979 | Complete postcheckout |
| March 8, 1979 | Closeout inspection, Final Acceptance Palmdale |
| March 8, 1979 | Rollout from Palmdale to Dryden |
| March 12, 1979 | Overland transport from Palmdale to Edwards |
| March 20, 1979 | SCA Ferry Flight from DFRC to Biggs AFB, Texas |
| March 22, 1979 | SCA Ferry flight from Biggs AFB to Kelly AFB, Texas |
| March 24, 1979 | SCA Ferry flight from Kelly AFB to Eglin AFB, Florida |
| March 24, 1979 | SCA Ferry flight from Eglin, AFB to KSC |
| November 3, 1979 | Auxiliary Power Unit hot fire tests, OPF KSC |
| December 16, 1979 | Orbiter integrated test start, KSC |
| January 14, 1980 | Orbiter integrated test complete, KSC |
| February 20, 1981 | Flight Readiness Firing |
| April 12, 1981 | First Flight (STS-1) |
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