When Did The Space Shuttle First Fly

National aeronautics and space administration nasa.
When did the space shuttle first fly. Buran was lifted into space on an uncrewed mission by the specially designed energia rocket. Formally called the space transportation system sts it lifted off into space for the first time on april 12 1981 and made 135 flights. It was the first shuttle to fly into space in 1981. It was designed to fly in space and its first mission was another test of the space shuttle.
The first mission of the space transport system sts 1 or space shuttle flew on april 12 1981 ending a long hiatus in american space flight. Regular flights of the space shuttle began on april 12 1981 with the launching of columbia. The last apollo lunar mission flew in december 1972 and the joint american russian apollo soyuz earth orbital mission closed in july 1975. Astronaut john young a veteran of four previous spaceflights including a walk on the moon in 1972 commanded the mission.
Nasa ksc nasa keeps two 747s known as the shuttle carrier aircraft sca set up this way on purpose. It launched for the first time on mission sts 1 on april 12 1981 the first flight of the space shuttle program. The space shuttle s first flight. Why did the first space shuttle go into space.
Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011 nasa has relied on the russian soyuz spacecraft to ferry its astronauts to and from the international space station iss. Space shuttle also called space transportation system partially reusable rocket launched vehicle designed to go into orbit around earth to transport people and cargo to and from orbiting spacecraft and to glide to a runway landing on its return to earth s surface that was developed by the u s. The automated launch sequence performed as specified and the energia rocket lifted the vehicle into a temporary. The space shuttle was a partially reusable low earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the national aeronautics and space administration nasa as part of the space shuttle program its official program name was space transportation system sts taken from a 1969 plan for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.
Space shuttle discovery atop the shuttle carrier aircraft sca touches down at nasa kennedy space center s shuttle landing facility on aug. The only orbital launch of a buran class orbiter 1k1 first orbiter first flight occurred at 03 00 02 utc on 15 november 1988 from baikonur cosmodrome launch pad 110 37. 21 2005 after a ferry flight from edwards air force base in california.