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The first space shuttle was launched on April 12, 1981. The first flight
lasted 54 hours and 21 minutes.
The shuttle was the first manned spacecraft designed to be re-usable. NASA -
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the United States -
planned the space shuttle as part of the push to establish a permanent manned
space station, but budget cutbacks forced the agency to send up a smaller
craft with a less ambitious set of goals. Even so, the first shuttle, The
Columbia, weighs two million kilograms at takeoff!
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