Space Shuttle Columbia (OV-102) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe, and the female personification of the United States, Columbia was the first of five Space Shuttle orbiters to fly in space, debuting the Space Shuttle launch vehicle on its maiden flight on April 14, 1981, and becoming the first spacecraft to be re-used after its first flight when it launched on STS-2 on November 12, 1981. During its 22 years of operation, Columbia was flown on 28 missions in the Space Shuttle program, spending over 300 days in space and completing over 4,000 orbits around Earth. NASA’s Flagship Orbiter, Columbia often flew flights dedicated to scientific research in orbit following the loss of Challenger in 1986. We celebrate this remarkable feat of engineering with an image of a toy shuttle on re-entry …