STS-2

Name: Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102 | STS-2
Start: 1981-11-12T15:10:00+00:00
End: 1981-11-12T16:10:00+00:00
Location: Launch Complex 39A

Space Shuttle Columbia / OV-102

Rockwell International

Launch Status

Success

Thu • Nov 12th, 1981
3:10 PM UTC

Crew

Joe Engle

Status: Retired
8/26/1932 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 6/29/1965
Last Flight: 8/27/1985

Joe Henry Engle is an American pilot who served in the United States Air Force, test pilot for the North American X-15 program, aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. As of 2018, he is the last living pilot of the X-15 program.

Engle test-flew the joint NASA-Air Force X-15 rocket airplane. During the course of testing, Engle earned his USAF Astronaut Wings, a Distinguished Flying Cross and other awards. Engle was selected by NASA in 1966 for the Apollo program, and was originally scheduled to land on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 17, but was bumped when later flights were cancelled, so that geologist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt could fly.

He subsequently became one of the first astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, having flight tested the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977. He was Commander of the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.

Richard H. Truly

Status: Retired
11/12/1937 -
Nationality: American
Type: Government
First Flight: 11/12/1981
Last Flight: 8/30/1983

Richard Harrison Truly is a retired Vice Admiral in the United States Navy, a former fighter pilot, former astronaut for both the United States Air Force and NASA, and was the eighth Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1989 to 1992. He was the first former astronaut to head the space agency.

After his departure from NASA, he led the Georgia Tech Research Institute from 1992 to 1997, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory from 1997 to 2005.

Mission

STS-2

Type: Test Flight

STS-2 was the second flight of the Space Shuttle program. It flew on Columbia again marking the first time in history that a manned, reusable orbital vehicle returned to orbit for a second time.