Columbia (or Orbiter Vehicle 102), the very first orbiter in the
Shuttle fleet, was named after the Boston, Massachusetts based
sloop captained by American Robert Gray. On May 11, 1792, Gray and
his crew maneuvered the Columbia past the dangerous sandbar at the
mouth of a river extending more than 1,000 miles through what is
today south-eastern British Columbia, Canada, and the
Washington-Oregon border. The river was later named after the ship.
Gray also led Columbia and its crew on the first American
circumnavigation of the globe, carrying a cargo of otter skins to
Canton, China, and then returning to Boston.
Other sailing ships have further enhanced the luster of the name
Columbia. The first U.S. Navy ship to circle the globe bore that
title, as did the command module for Apollo 11, the first lunar
landing mission.
On a more directly patriotic note, "Columbia" is considered to
be the feminine personification of the United States. The name is
derived from that of another famous explorer, Christopher
Columbus.
Columbia flew her first flight on the
STS-1 mission, bringing in an era of winged space travel. The
ship flew 28 missions, but on her 28th mission,STS-107, she
disintegrated on entry killing the seven crew on board over the
states of Texas and Louisiana. Due to Columbia being NASA's first
orbiter, she had a suite of instrumentation installed that no other
orbiters carried. A data recorder containing information from these
sensors was recovered in Texas and allowed investigators to
determine a breach in her left wing that was caused by the impact
of foam from her external tank during liftoff, led to her loss. The
remains of Columbia currently reside in a secure room in the
Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center and are available
for viewing by aerospace engineers an researches who are dedicated
to making space travel safer.
Other caches in the series:
Orbiter Micro Series - Discovery (OV103)
Orbiter Micro Series - Atlantis (OV104)
Orbiter Micro Series - Endeavour (OV105)