Space shuttle Columbia

Columbia OV-102
Columbia preparing for launch for STS-109 to repair the Hubble Space telescope. This was the final successful mission of Columbia before STS-107.
OV designation	OV-102
Country	United States
Contract award	July 26, 1972
Named after	Columbia (1773)
Status	Destroyed February 1, 2003
First flight	STS-1 April 12, 1981 – April 14, 1981
Last flight	STS-107 January 16, 2003 – February 1, 2003
Number of missions	28
Crew members	160
Time spent in space	300 days 17:40:22
Number of orbits	4,808
Distance travelled	201,497,772 km (125,204,911 miles)
Satellites deployed	8

Space Shuttle Columbia (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Over 22 years of service it completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry near the end of its 28th mission, STS-107 on February 1, 2003, resulting in the deaths of all seven crew members.

Construction began on Columbia in 1975 at Rockwell International's (formerly North American Aviation/North American Rockwell) principal assembly facility in Palmdale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Columbia was named after the American sloop Columbia Rediviva which, from 1787 to 1793, under the command of Captain Robert Gray, explored the US Pacific Northwest and became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the globe. It is also named after the Command Module of Apollo 11, the first manned landing on another celestial body.Columbia was also the female symbol of the United States. After construction, the orbiter arrived at Kennedy Space Center on March 25, 1979, to prepare for its first launch. Columbia was originally scheduled to lift off in late 1979, however the launch date was delayed by problems with both the SSME components, as well as the thermal protection system (TPS). On March 19, 1981, during preparations for a ground test, workers were asphyxiated while working in Columbia's nitrogen-purged aft engine compartment, resulting in (variously reported) two or three fatalities.