USA Company Newsletter Issue 57 (Apr/May 2006)

Twenty-five years ago, a new spacecraft, unlike anything that had departed the Earth before, roared off a Florida launch pad, and space flight, as we knew it, changed forever.

Named Columbia, after the first American sailing ship to circumnavigate the globe, this new vehicle represented the culmination of decades of concept development and research, and years of design, engineering, and construction. It was the first vehicle ever that could launch like a rocket, orbit like a satellite and glide home on a conventional runway, before being refurbished for its next voyage.

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