posted 04-12-2006 06:03 AM               

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Though Columbia is no longer flying, parts of the STS-1 launch vehicle continue to lift other orbiters skyward. The white-painted External Tank was purposely left to reenter and break apart after its use (as is the case with all tanks) but the twin solid rocket boosters — the first used for a manned space flight — were recovered and reused. Most recently, the uppermost cylinder of the left booster that launched the return to flight mission after Columbia's loss, STS-114, could be traced back to the April 1981 mission.

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