Space Print from NASA: 1st Launch of Shuttle STS-1. The first manned Shuttle, Columbia, crewed by Robert Crippen and John Young, was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre, Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 12th April 1981. Columbia orbited 36 times before landing safely back on Earth (NASA Media Archives). Buy this picture as an unframed print or poster, a framed print or a mounted box canvas print.