Space Shuttle The first fully functional Space Shuttle, the Columbia, lifted off from Pad A on Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, on April 12, 1981. After a two-day, test flight mission that verified the ability of the Shuttle to function in space, it landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California. An assembled Space Shuttle is approximately 184 ft (56 m) long, 76 ft (23 m) high to the tip of the vertical tail, and 78 ft (24 m) wide, across the wingtips. Liftoff weight is about 4.5 million pounds.

An orbiter's three liquid fuelled engines -- drawing propellants from the external tank -- and the two solid propellant rocket boosters burn simultaneously for the first 2 minutes of liftoff. Together, they produce about 7.3 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

When the mission has been completed, the orbiter re-enters the atmosphere and returns to Earth, gliding to an unpowered landing at either KSC or Edwards AFB.
The Discovery

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