Space Shuttle Columbia

**Space Shuttle Columbia** (OV-102) was the first operational orbiter in the Space Shuttle Program. It launched for the first time in April 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program. It remained operational until August 1998, when it was destroyed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

## Missions

Space Shuttle Columbia flew for 41 missions total before its destruction.

* STS-1 (April 1981) (Young, Crippen) - Maiden flight of Columbia. First orbital flight of the program. [OTL STS-1]
* STS-2 (November 1981) (Engle, Truly) - Tested the Canadarm [OTL STS-2]
* STS-3 (March 1982) (Lousma, Fullerton) - First usage of the Spacelab pallet, continued testing of the Canadarm, extensive thermal testing. First to land at White Sands, due to flooding at Edwards AFB. [OTL STS-3]
* STS-4 (June 1982) (Mattingly, Hartsfield) - Final test flight. [OTL STS-4]
* STS-5 (November 1982) (Brand, Overmyer, Allen, Lenoir) - First officially operational shuttle mission, first to deploy a communications satellite. First crew of four [OTL STS-5]
* STS-7 (April 1983) (Crippen, Hauck, Fabian, Ride Thagard) - First women to ride Space Shuttle. [OTL STS-7]
* STS-9 (August 1983) (Young, Shaw, Garriot, Parker, Merfbold, Lichtenburg) - First non-American to ride the Space Shuttle, first ESA Astronaut to ride the Space Shuttle. First usage of the Spacelab module. [OTL STS-9]
* STS-11 (December 1983) (Brand, Gibson, McCandless, Stewart, McNair) - First untethered spacewalk. [OTL STS-41-B]
* STS-22 (August 1985) (Engle, Covey, Van Hoften, Lounge, Fisher) - [OTL STS-51-I]
* STS-29 (May 1986) (Walker, Grabe, Thagard, Van Hoften) - Deployed Galileo probe (high-gain antenna deployment works), take 2 years to get to Jupiter thanks to Centaur-G.
* STS-35 (December 1986) (Charles E. Jones, Onizuka, Shriver, Buchli, Payton) - DOD mission.
* STS-39 (April 1987) (Williams, McCulley, Lucid, Chang-Diaz, Baker) - Navstar GPS Satellite
* STS-55 (December 1988) - Deploys Cosmic Background Explorer
* STS-59 (April 1989)
* STS-63 (August 1989) (Shriver, Bolden, McCandless, Hawley, Sullivan) - Deploys Hubble Space Telescope
* STS-67 (December 1989)
* STS-71 (April 1990)
* STS-75 (August 1990)
* STS-79 (December 1990)
* STS-83 (April 1991)
* STS-87(August 1991)
* STS-91(December 1991)
* STS-95 (April 1992) (Covey, Bowersox, Thornton, Nicollier, Hoffman, Musgrave, Akers) - First Hubble servicing mission, new camera, corrective optics.
* STS-99(August 1992)
* STS-103 (December 1992)
* STS-107 (April 1993)
* STS-111 (August 1993)
* STS-115 (December 1993)
* STS-119 (April 1994)
* STS-123 (August 1994)
* STS-127 (December 1994)
* STS-131 (April 1995)
* STS-135 (August 1995)
* STS-139 (December 1995)
* STS-143 (April 1996) (Allen, Horowitz, Hoffman, Cheli, Nicollier, Chang-Diaz, Guidoni) [OTL STS-75]
* STS-147 (August 1996)
* STS-151 (December 1996)
* STS-155 (April 1997)
* STS-159 (August 1997) - Delivery of JEM Exposed Facility and Experiment Logistics Module's Pressurized Section and Exposed Section to *Freedom*.
* STS-163 (December 1997) - Delivery of Harmony to *Freedom*.
* STS-167 (April 1998) - Delivery of the Assured Crew Return Vehicle to *Freedom*.
* STS-171 (August 1998) - Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Delivered Centrifuge and Node 3 to *Freedom*.