In this episode of Dave Does History, we fire up the rockets and revisit one of the boldest gambles in American spaceflight: the launch of Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-1 in April 1981.

This was not a test run—it was the first flight of a brand-new spacecraft with astronauts aboard.

We will meet Commander John Young and Pilot Robert Crippen, unpack the mission’s high-stakes challenges, and explore how Columbia changed the game for NASA.

Strap in as we journey through triumph, tension, and the legacy of a ship that flew to orbit like a rocket and landed like a dream.