Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What was the name of the first U.S. Space Shuttle to orbit the earth?"
...What was the name of the first space shuttle? Space Shuttle Columbia (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space-rated orbiter in NASA's Space Shuttle fleet. It launched for the first time on mission STS-1 on April 12, 1981, the first flight of the Space Shuttle program. Space Shuttle Columbia What was the name of the first space shuttle? Who was the first man to orbit the earth? Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (Russian: Ю́рий Алексе́евич Гага́рин, IPA: [ˈjʉrʲɪj ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ɡɐˈɡarʲɪn]; 9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.
