With Space Shuttle Columbia mounted firmly atop, NASA's modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 lifts off Northrup Strip at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on April 6, 1982 to ferry Columbia back to KSC.
With Space Shuttle Columbia mounted firmly atop, NASA’s modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft 905 kicks up clouds of gypsum dust as it lifts off Northrup Strip at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico on April 6, 1982 to ferry Columbia back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Crewed by NASA astronauts Jack Lousma and Gordon Fullerton on its third orbital test mission, Columbia had been diverted from its planned landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California due to bad weather the previous week having left Edwards’ lakebed runways too soggy to support a shuttle landing. It was the only space shuttle landing to occur at White Sands over the course of the 30-year, 135-mission shuttle program.NASA photoEC82-22205