The dream is alive!

When Space Shuttle Columbia touched down, nobody was aware of just how lucky her crew was to make it home. The orbiter’s heat shield was damaged when an overpressure wave from the solid rocket booster caused a forward RCS oxidizer strut to fail.

The same overpressure wave also forced the shuttle’s “body flap” that controlled pitch during the reentry phase – more than 5° out of position and into an angle far beyond the point where cracking or rupture of its hydraulic system would have been expected. Had that rupture occurred, a controlled descent would have been impossible.

.Astronaut John Young later admitted that had the crew been aware of this, they would have flown the shuttle up to a safe altitude and ejected, causing Columbia to have been lost on her first flight.

After reaching an orbital altitude of 166 nautical miles, Columbia flew 37 orbits, on a 1 million,74 thousand, 567-mile long flight, lasting 2 days, 6 hours, 20 minutes and 53 seconds.

Space Shuttle Columbia safely touched down on Runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 10:21 am PST on the 14th of April 1981.