An interesting link about Columbia's missions
(Might interest Robert).

I remember all those tiles missing on the orbiter on its way to KSC in 1979.
The waiting in early 1981...the 48 hours delay before it finally was launched.
I remember the huge scare, slipping down from the sofa to the floor, seeing it rushing to the sky at 02:00 pm. We didnd't have vcr's at the time.
Those 2 days in space with Young and Crippen floating around and the huge size of the machine!
Then it's way back, a smile on Joe Allen's face showing they had established contact again, after the blackout. And the landing, super landing! for the first time, a huge machine came back from space and landed on its wheels, without a parachute.

Then there was STS 2 with Engle and Truly, with the RMS tests; it was cut short : 2 days instead of 5.
STS 3 with Lousma and Fullerton. It left the Earth while I was in Germany at the army; I got 6 days off, returned back to follow the flight but had to return back to the base before Columbia landed and White Sands, as there had been bad weather at Edwards. the Shuttle landed and the nose seemed to want to return back to space for 2 seconds.

STS 4 took place at the same time as Chrétien's Soyuz flight and we got a lot more coverage from the USSR than the USA, quite odd...

STS 5 had 2 satellites relaesed and no spacewalk because of a defect on the EMU.

STS 9 saw the first ESA astronaut, the longest flight then, the Spacelab use and Young's last flight to space. I rmember seeing the Shuttle, for the first time, very low above the horizon and only for a few seconds.

Then there were military flights, IML, USMP flights.
The recovery of LDEF which was the longest flight, then.

Also, sts 40, Tammy's first flight (I was in sick leave then).

STS 80 and the hatch that wouldn't open for Tammy on Story's last flight.

STS 87 which saw Kalpana's first flight and also the first EVA from Columbia.

STS 93 with the scare at liftoff and Eileen's flight as commander. I saw the crew a while later. Chandra is producing wonders!

STS 109, replacing the FOC by the ACS on the HST (on my birthday), to produce ever sharper pictures of the wonders of the universe!

The legacies of Columbia.

Raoul