Astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen prepare for NASA's first shuttle flight aboard the Columbia orbiter, which launched 25 years ago today on April 12, 1981.

Commanding the STS-1 mission was Young (front), a veteran of Gemini and Apollo spaceflights including 1972’s Apollo 16 – in which he walked on the Moon.

Behind Young in this image is STS-1 pilot Crippen, who made his first spaceflight with Columbia’s first launch.

“I had been working as an astronaut for a long time by then,” Crippen told SPACE.com. “I was 28 years old when I was selected by NASA to be an astronaut and 43 when I flew the first time.”

Young and Crippen spent about 54 hours and 30 minutes in Earth orbit during the STS-1 mission, during which they opened payload bay doors and tested the myriad of systems that work together to make shuttle flight possible.

“It all worked like it was supposed to,” Young said in an interview. “[Columbia was doing a good job.”

-- Tariq Malik

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