45 years ago... April 14, 1981...spacecraft with no engines glided down and touched down like a giant paper airplane on a dry lakebed in California.
Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-1, the very first Shuttle mission, coming in hot over Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base. You see the chase planes, the perfect unpowered approach, wheels kissing Runway 23, and that massive dust cloud as it rolls out. Then the crew... John Young and Robert Crippen... stepping out after 54 hours and 36 orbits in space.
This wasnโt just another rocket flight. Columbia proved the Shuttle could launch like a rocket, orbit like a spacecraft, and land like an airplane. Reusable hardware, real test pilots at the controlsโฆ it changed everything.The beginning of the Shuttle era in all its glory.
This animation shows NASAโs Artemis II mission path, a journey of nearly 685,000 miles. The crew will travel in a figure-eight trajectory, looping out from Earth, around the Moon, and back again.
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