WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

S81-30509 (12 April 1981) --- Separation of space shuttle Columbia's external tank, photographed by motion picture cameras in the umbilical bays, occurred following the shutdown of the vehicle's three main engines. The Columbia's cameras were able to record the underside of the tank as the orbiter headed toward its Earth-orbital mission with astronauts John W. Young and Robert L. Crippen aboard, and the fuel tank fell toward Earth, passing through the atmosphere rapidly.