Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-93) Poster

Space Shuttle Columbia sits on Launch Pad 39B less than two weeks after liftoff of Discovery on mission STS-96. Columbia was rolled out June 7 in preparation for the launch of STS-93 with its payload of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The Rotating Service Structure, at left, will be moved into place on Tuesday, June 8. With the world's most powerful X-ray telescope, Chandra will allow scientists from around the world to see previously invisible black holes and high-temperature gas clouds, giving the observatory the potential to rewrite the books on the structure and evolution of our universe. Columbia (OV-102) is the first of NASA's orbiter fleet, delivered to Kennedy Space Centre in March 1979. Columbia initiated the Space Shuttle flight program at KSC when it lifted off Launch Pad 39A on April 12, 1981.