Columbia, the first operational Space Shuttle, landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility of John F. Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, atop a Boeing 747 transport airplane. The Space Shuttle was meant as a reusable alternative to the traditional ballistic rockets used to launch manned spacecraft in the 1960s and 1970s. From 1981 to 2011, when the fleet was retired, five shuttles were flown over 130 times. It was the first space launch system that was mostly reusable, as the shuttles themselves and the solid rocket boosters were reused multiple times. Space shuttles were launched from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) and Launch Complex 39B (LC-39B) at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Merritt Island, Florida. Columbia launched for the first time on April 12, 1981, and completed 27 missions before disintegrating during re-entry at the end of STS-107, its 28th mission, on February 1, 2003. Known as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the accident resulted in the death of all seven crew members: Mission Commander Rick Husband (1957-2003), Pilot William C. McCool (1961-2003), and Mission Specialists David M. Brown (1956-2003), Kalpana Chawla (1962-2003), Michael P. Anderson (1959-2003), Laurel Clark (1961-2003), and Ilan Ramon (1954-2003).]]> Chronopoints]]> Florida Space Coast History Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.]]> RICHES of Central Florida for educational purposes only.]]>