On this day in space: March 30, 1982: NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle returns to Earth

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On March 30, 1982, NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle returned to Earth after 8 days in space.

On this day in space: March 30, 1982: NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle returned to Earth after spending 8 days in space. The mission, designated STS-3, was the third mission for Columbia.

The shuttle launched on March 22, 1982, carrying a two-man crew of Jack R. Lousma and C. Gordon Fullerton.

The Space Shuttle Columbia touching down at Northrop Strip, White Sands, New Mexico on March 30, 1982

The Space Shuttle Columbia touching down at Northrop Strip, White Sands, New Mexico on March 30, 1982 (Image credit: NASA)

Columbia was the first and only shuttle mission to land at the White Sands Space Harbor spaceport in New Mexico.

The landing was originally slated to take place at Edwards Air Force Base, but this was prevented by flooding.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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