Thirty years ago today — March 8, 1979 — the Space Shuttle Columbia was delivered to NASA from the factory in Palmdale, California.
And 15 years ago today, it was in orbit. Columbia launched on March 4, 1994 from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-62, carrying astronauts John H. Casper, Andrew M. Allen, Pierre J. Thuot, Charles D. Gemar, and Marsha S. Ivins. They spent almost two weeks in space, landing back at KSC on March 18th.
And now you know.
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