It was the second, the Columbia, that had the honor of being the first space shuttle to launch into orbit. It blasted off on April 12, 1981, exactly two decades after Yuri Gagarin became the first ...
I was 20 years old and a member of the 7 th Cavalry near the DMZ in South Korea when the first Space Shuttle was launched in 1981. The launch took place, not intentionally, on the 20th anniversary ...