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SPACE SHUTTLE COLUMBIA (OV-102) Fact Sheet
Written and Edited by Cliff Lethbridge
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Contract Awarded: July 26, 1972
Final Assembly Completed: April 23, 1978 Factory Rollout: March 8, 1979 Delivery to Kennedy Space Center: March 25, 1979 First Space Flight: April 12, 1981 (STS-1) |
Columbia was named in honor of a U.S. commercial sloop based at Boston Harbor. On May 11, 1792 Captain Robert Gray and the crew of Columbia maneuvered past a dangerous sandbar at the mouth of a river extending more than 1,000 miles through what is today southeastern British Columbia and across the borders of Washington and Oregon.
The river was later named the Columbia River in honor of the sailing vessel. Gray later led Columbia and its crew on the first U.S. circumnavigation of the globe, carrying a cargo of otter skins to Canton, China and back to Boston.
Other U.S. sailing vessels have carried the name Columbia, including a U.S. Navy frigate launched in 1836 that became the first U.S. Navy ship to circle the globe. The name Columbia, derived from the name of the explorer Christopher Columbus, was also the name of the Apollo 11 Command Module.
Columbia milestones include the first launch and test mission of a Space Shuttle (STS-1), the first Department of Defense payload carried aboard a Space Shuttle (STS-4), the first operational mission of a Space Shuttle (STS-5), the first satellites deployed from a Space Shuttle (STS-5) and the first flight of the Spacelab module (STS-9)
Copyright © 1998 by Spaceline, Inc.
