Countdown Songfacts The first Space Shuttle lifted off from the Pad A on Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, on April 12, 1981. After an initial two-day, test-flight mission that verified the

[Mike]

Countdown Songfacts

The first Space Shuttle lifted off from the Pad A on Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, on April 12, 1981. After an initial two-day, test-flight mission that verified the ability of the Orbiter Columbia to function in space, it landed at Edwards AFB in California. The vehicle was piloted by John Young and Robert Crippen. t was the STS-1 mission that marked the first time that a new space vehicle carried a crew on its initial flight.

A Space Shuttle consisted of a reusable delta-winged space plane, called an orbiter; two solid-propellant booster rockets, which are recovered and also reused; and an expendable tank containing liquid propellant for the orbiter?s three main engines. Only the orbiters have names, and an orbiter alone is not a full Space Shuttle.

The Space Shuttle is aproximately 184 feet (56 meters) long, 76 feet (23 meters) high to the tip of the orbiter?s vertical tail, and 78 feet (24 meters) wide, measuring across the orbiter?s wingtips. Liftoff weight is usually about 4,500,000 pounds (2,041,200 kilograms).

An orbiter?s three liquid fueled engines -- drawing propelants from the external tank -- and the two solid-propellant rocket boosters burn simultaneously for the first two minutes. Together, they produce about 7.3 million pounds (32.4 million newtons) of thrust at liftoff.

After two minutes of flight a Space Shuttle reaches an altitude of 32 miles (48 kilometers) and the boosters have burned all their propellant. They then detach and parachute into the ocean. Two awaiting ships recover them, for refurbishment and reuse on later missions.

The orbiter and external tank then continue on toward Earth orbit. When the orbiter?s main engines cut off, just before achieving orbit, the external tank is jettisoned, to re-enter the atmosphere and break up over a remote ocean area. On most missions the orbiter continues to coast until it reaches the other side of the Earth from where the external tank was discarded. The on-board orbital maneuvering engines are then fired to place the vehicle in a near-circular low-Earth orbit. Most operational missions last from four to seven days, though longer ones are sometimes required.

When the mission is completed, the orbiter re-enters the atmosphere and returns to Earth, gliding to an unpowered landing at either Kenndy Space Center or Edwards AFB.