Space Shuttle Columbia Maiden Flight

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S.^¹ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program.^¹ Its official program name was the Space Transportation System (STS), taken from the 1969 plan led by U.S. vice president Spiro Agnew for a system of reusable spacecraft where it was the only item funded for development.^¹