November 1981 - November 12, 1981 (Thursday)

November 12, 1981 (Thursday)

• The space shuttle Columbia became the first space vehicle to be reused, launching at 10:09 am from Cape Canaveral with astronauts Joe Engle and Richard Truly. It was only the second shuttle mission overall. A failure of some of the fuel cells forced the early end of the mission, and Engle and Truly landed two days later.
• November 12, 1981, had also been the date, planned back in 1969, for the launch of a manned mission to Mars, based on the expected planning time and the proximity of Earth to Mars and Venus. Cuts to NASA budget in 1970 stopped the project, but the plan had been for a nine month trip to Mars, with arrival on August 9, 1982; ten weeks of exploration ending with departure on October 28, 1982; a flyby of Venus February 28, 1983; and a return to Earth on August 14, 1983.
• Double Eagle V became the first balloon to cross the Pacific Ocean. After launching on November 10 from Nagashima, Japan with four men (Rocky Aoki, Ron Clark, Larry Newman and Ben Abruzzo) and crossing the International Date Line, the Double Eagle traveled 5,768 miles and landed 84 hours and 31 minutes later in the U.S., near Covelo, California.