The first space shuttle that "flew" was the Enterprise, but it was not capable of space flight.
The first orbital shuttle was Columbia.
The next orbital shuttle was Challenger.
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The second space shuttle to take flight was the orbiter Columbia on November 12, 1981, as part of the STS-2 mission.
The first NASA space shuttle mission, STS-1, took place in 1981. The mission was flown by the space shuttle Columbia and marked the first orbital flight of the Space Shuttle program.
Space shuttle Columbia first launched on April 12, 1981, for its maiden flight.
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986. The shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, resulting in the death of all seven crew members on board.
The Space Shuttle typically took about 8.5 minutes to reach space after launch. It would generally reach an altitude of around 100 kilometers (62 miles), which is considered the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space.
The space shuttle took about 8-10 minutes to reach orbit. It would then take around 6 hours for the space shuttle to catch up with the space station for docking.