WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Space Shuttle Columbia touches down on the gypsum surface of Northrup Strip at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico to conclude the third space shuttle mission on March 30, 1982. Crewed by NASA astronauts Jack Lousma and Gordon Fullerton, Columbia had been diverted from its planned landing at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California due to bad weather the previous week having left Edwards' lakebed runways too soggy to support a shuttle landing. Two months later, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation renaming the Northrup Strip area as White Sands Space Harbor.