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43 years ago on April 12, 1981, NASA launched the first space shuttle, Columbia, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
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Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC): Currently leads the URSC to meet the national requirements in the areas like communication, navigation, remote sensing, meteorology and inter-planetary exploration.
M Sankaran
It ushered in a new era of flying in which humans may travel to space several times in the same spacecraft.
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The shuttle flew into space for over 20 years, circling Earth about 5,000 times and spending more than 300 days outside of Earth's gravity.
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Columbia transported 160 astronauts away from Earth; the vessel holds the record for the shortest and longest space shuttle flights of 2 days, 6 hours, 13 minutes, and 12 seconds and 17 days, 15 hours, 53 minutes, and 18 seconds, respectively.
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Space Shuttle Columbia's final mission ended in catastrophe. The shuttle and its seven crew including Indian-origin astronaut Kalpana Chawla were lost over Texas when Columbia burnt up during reentry on February 1, 2003.
Image Credit: NASA