1981

  • Maiden Flight of the Rockwell B-1b Lancer (1981)

    The Rockwell B-1 Lancer[b] is a supersonic variable-sweep wing, heavy bomber used by the United States Air Force. It has been nicknamed the “Bone” (from “B-One”). As of 2024, it is one of the United States Air Force’s three strategic bombers, along with the B-2 Spirit and the B-52 Stratofortress. It is a heavy bomber with up to a 75,000-pound (34,000 kg) payload. The program was canceled…

  • Voyager 2 Passes Saturn (1981)

    Voyager 2 is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice…

  • Raiders of the Lost Ark is Launched in US Cinemas (1981)

    Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost…

  • Maiden Flight of the Shuttle Colombia (1981)

    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…