The world’s first fully-functional space shuttle, Columbia, was delivered to the JFK Space Center.
Construction of the Columbia Space Shuttle began just four years earlier, with many of its features copied over from the first experimental space shuttle, the Enterprise. On April 12, 1981, Columbia made its first flight on mission STS-1. It flew 28 missions in total, with the final mission ending in complete disaster when it broke up in Earth’s atmosphere during re-entry.